The Ninetales' Curse
by Negrek
Summary: When Katherine and her Pidgeot set out to explore an uncharted island, they stumble upon quite a bit more adventure than they bargained for.
1. The Dawn

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, the only pokémon that I own are the ones in my video games. All original characters, locales, and pokémon that may appear in this piece are mine, however.

**Rating: **PG for mild violence, blood and gore. Strong language is used in later chapters, however, and will be noted.

**Author's Notes: **_The Ninetales' Curse _was my first foray into the world of pokémon fanfiction, and though I am overall satisfied with how it turned out, I have decided that a bit of revision is in order. As I revise each chapter I will remove the author's notes from the top, so if a chapter retains notes then it has yet to be edited.

**Prologue: The Dawn**

The morning sunlight crept slowly through the foggy window, almost as though it was reluctant to disturb the dark, brooding interior of the mansion. Its warm glow did little to enliven the bowels of the huge, silent house, which was slowly crumbling away beneath the weight of years of neglect and painful memories. The brave sunbeam struggled through eddying dust motes to cast a small patch of golden radiance on the floor, an oasis of light and hope in this, the domain of despair.

As the morning brightened, the ray of illumination intensified, drawing back the veil of darkness that shrouded the room into which it had intruded. It revealed sagging, defeated furniture quietly decomposing in the perpetual gloom, small piles of plaster fallen from the deteriorating ceiling, and, curiously enough, another light source, twin patches of red light lurking near the back of the room.

These mysterious lights were nearly as different from the perpetually optimistic sunbeam as it was possible to be, however; they glowed with baleful malice, seemingly offended by the sun's trespassing on their domain. And, most surprising of all, they moved forward, revealing that they were not, in fact, lights, but eyes—the eyes of a ninetales, illuminated from within by the pokémon's mystical power.

The fire-type moved silently through the patch of sunlight, her golden fur briefly illuminated before being swallowed once more by shadows. She proceeded through the darkness with the grace and ease of memory, stepping lightly around holes in the floorboards. Her luxurious tails swept away cobwebs and brushed up against moldering furniture as she passed, hardly making any sound at all.

She stepped out of the perpetually half-ajar front door and into the fresh air of early morning. Continuing out onto the garden path, she padded lightly across cracked stepping stones, now almost completely indiscernible beneath the tangle of unkempt grass that had grown up to engulf them. She continued past flowerbeds now overgrown with weeds, the only flowers remaining there feral, twisted specimens, eternally at war with one another for sunlight and nourishment. The air was scented with rot and damp, a perfume suitable for the decomposing mansion.

The ninetales left through the old garden gate, which now hung by one hinge, rusted open. Leaving behind the dismal mansion, she stepped out onto the windswept cliff top upon which it rested. The building behind her seemed even more forlorn from the outside, a lone, hunched crone huddled dejectedly on a cold, windy street, clutching her twisted gardens about her like a ragged cloak. One entire wing of the mansion was gone, only a few charred posts and sections of wall remaining to testify that a fire had occurred there long ago.

The ninetales, however, did not look back at her home as she strode purposefully up to the very edge of the cliff. A wide swath of forest spread out below, only just awakening to the trills of birds and the sigh of ocean breezes in its leaves. The ninetales surveyed it for a moment, her attitude almost scornful, before turning her gaze out to the ocean beyond. Its calm, peaceful waters sparkled in the early morning light, seeming to stretch on forever. As the ninetales stared out across its boundless miles, she looked not only out across her domain but also back in time, to an era long past and which few humans remembered. Her eyes burned with cold fire as she allowed her mind to wander back through her dark memories, utterly oblivious to the teasing breeze that toyed with the thick ruff of fur around her neck as she stood motionless on the edge of the precipice. She remembered.

She would never forget.

She would never forgive.

BREAKBREAKBREAK

The rattata tore through the forest, his four small feet pounding the ground as he streaked through the underbrush, kicking up fallen leaves as he went. He had been running hard for several minutes now, and his light purple fur was soaked with sweat. His sensitive ears told him that his pursuer was still not far behind him, however, loping easily after him on her long, powerful legs. He forced himself to a still greater speed, and he flew through the sparse vegetation, knowing he was not far from a safe haven.

As he raced around a tree trunk, the rattata felt an unusual tingle spread across his body, starting at the tip of his nose and traveling down his body to the tip of his tail. It made his whiskers quiver and he nearly missed a step, but his body flooded with relief anyway. He threw himself into a blackberry bush that was just ahead, his small form able to squeeze through a gap between the plant's thorny branches without injury. Once inside his leafy sanctuary, he slumped to the ground, sides heaving.

Nishivma slowed to a halt and sat down outside of the blackberry bush, her cunning eyes fixed on the spot where the rattata had disappeared. She feigned nonchalance, extending a foreleg and working her tongue through the rich cream-colored fur that covered it. Her gaze never left the bush, lest her quarry try to escape while she appeared preoccupied. Once she determined that she had given the rattata sufficient time to recover his wits, she returned her paw to the earth and leaned closer to the bush, her wide ears detecting the small noises of the rattata within. "Jeremy, darling," she purred in a silky voice, "you know that you shouldn't have run away." The blackberry bush rustled in response.

Nishivma sat back on her haunches once again, the red gem set into her forehead gleaming as it caught a stray sunbeam. She continued her admonishment in a gentle, reproving tone, though beneath it her words seemed to have a sharp edge, clearly threatening. "You know how it upsets the Mistress so. Oh, she does so hate to see her guests leave without any notice. Imagine! Insulting her...hospitality..." Nishivma trailed off, letting the words hang in the crisp morning air. "You mustn't do anything like that ever again, Jeremy. I shudder to think at what might happen the next time you tried something like this. Why, I might just have to see to it that you would never be able to run away again."

Jeremy the rattata had recovered enough from his mad dash to sit up and glare out at Nishivma between the leaves of the bush. She couldn't see him, he was fairly sure, but he could see her perfectly well, her feline face set in a false expression of regret. He could see the cunning lurking behind her eyes and understood that she was enjoying the act, toying with him as cats are wont to do. "You know you could never kill me," he spat back at her. "The Mistress would be terribly displeased with you if you ever did that."

A sudden flicker of fear passed across Nishivma's slitted eyes but was gone almost before Jeremy was sure that he had seen it. The Persian's false kindly air evaporated completely, her manner turning deadly as she leaned in close once more, glaring into the bush, eyes searching for its concealed occupant. "Don't test me, rodent. It is by my courtesy alone that you are alive to taunt me," she growled warningly. Rising to her feet, she shot a last venomous glare at the bush and trotted off, deadly as a gengar and twice as silent.

Once he was positive that the Persian had left and was not just lurking out of sight, waiting for him to emerge, Jeremy rose to his feet as well. His head swam with dark, defiant thoughts as he slowly climbed out of his prickly savior. Nishivma or no, he would escape this accursed forest and free its inhabitants from their mutual nightmare.


	2. The Island

Chapter One: The Island

If there was one thing that Katherine loved about pokémon training, it was flying. She loved how the wind rushed through her hair and howled in her ears. She loved how all of the cares and worries of the world fell away as she rose above it. Not only that, but there were so many places that became open to you once you became certified to fly with your pokémon. For Katherine, flight was always an adventure, always something new and undiscovered.

It was a wonderful morning for it, too. The sun had burned away any trace of a cloud in the sky and its light soared unhindered to the ocean far below, glimmering off of its gently undulating surface. Pidgeot was feeling refreshed and adventurous this morning, as was his trainer. The pair had been looking forward to a chance to explore after the relative doldrums of trekking familiar ground for several weeks.

Katherine sat calmly astride Pidgeot, her long black hair streaming out behind her and her intense brown eyes fixed eagerly on the trackless ocean, searching for some sign of land. She ignored the icy tendrils of wind that somehow managed to wrap themselves about her despite the thick black sweatshirt that she wore. The Rayquaza that coiled across its front seemed as exhilarated as she was, its gaping maw open in what appeared to be a challenging shriek directed at gravity. It was always cold, flying, but Katherine was used to it. As the battered silver pokédex strapped to her trainer's belt attested, she had been training for some time now, long enough to be willing to endure a bit of discomfort in hopes of a great reward. Long enough to know, too, that if she wanted to travel far, she would have to travel light; Katherine had left her pack back at camp, taking all that she really needed with her in the pockets of her beige cargo pants.

It looked like they wouldn't have to go as far as she had thought to find adventure today, however. It was now coming up beneath her, a dark splotch on the shining ocean's surface. Katherine had certainly never heard of an island out here, off of the western coast of Johto, but then, there was a lot that she hadn't heard of. Trainers were always off in search of adventure, off to discover places that no one had ever been to before. Of course, there were a great, great many of them who enjoyed whatever it was that they found out there so much that they never came back. It was a sobering thought, but Katherine ignored it. What would life be without a little risk now and then?

Katherine leaned forward, yelling above the roar of the wind, "Let's take a look, Pidgeot!" The great raptor obliged, going into a steep dive as Katherine reflexively clung tighter to his feathery back. The deep, instinctual part of her brain screamed in terror as her mount rocketed towards the ground, but her conscious mind was quick to override it, turning her terror into pure elation. She thoroughly enjoyed the swooping feeling in the pit of her stomach as Pidgeot banked, correcting his course.

Pidgeot leveled off some hundred feet above the island, his keen eyes scanning it intently, spotting far more than Katherine could ever hope to. She squinted down at the island anyway, hoping to see something of interest. It looked to be a wooded island, with a large cliff at one end, sloping down to a forested valley below and continuing to slope down to a rocky beach where waves broke in frothy explosions. Something clearly unnatural perched atop the cliff, however, rigidly rectangular against the soft curves of the island's contours. "Let's get a little closer," Katherine suggested.

Pidgeot dived again, dropping another fifty feet and drifting over to the top of the cliff, guessing that the strange building atop it was what his trainer wanted to inspect. This close, Katherine could see that it was a mansion. It appeared abandoned, and almost half of it had been badly damaged by fire. Who would have gone to the trouble to build a mansion out on a little uncharted island like this and then abandon it?

"Take us down there, Pidgeot," she said eagerly.

But Pidgeot seemed uneasy about something. Rather than confidently swooping in as usual, he circled downward slowly, nervously sweeping the open plateau that surrounded the mansion with his eyes. He suddenly gave a small "Geot!" and pulled up so sharply that Katherine was forced to grab onto one of his long red crest feathers or risk falling off.

Katherine was annoyed. She knew that Pidgeot was very distrustful of the unknown and that he didn't like to take risks of any sort. For some reason the sight of the deserted mansion had unsettled him. "Oh, come on, you big baby," she chided him gently. "It's just a big old house. It won't hurt you."

Pidgeot maintained a dignified silence and veered off over the island's forest. Katherine sighed. She had hoped that she would be able to goad him into carrying her down to the intriguing building, but it looked like she would have to do a little walking if she wanted to reach the place. Pidgeot was stubborn and unlikely to change his mind and carry Katherine there himself.

"All right, all right, you win. We won't fly over to the big, creepy house, okay? Just put me down at the edge of the forest." Once again Pidgeot seemed reluctant, but he dipped smoothly and carried his trainer swiftly towards the ground all the same. He expertly pulled up just shy of plowing into the earth, executing a perfect landing on the small strip of grass that separated the island's rocky beach from the forest that covered most of it.

Katherine slid off of Pidgeot's back eagerly, already scanning the trees for some sign of pokémon life. Who knew what kind of rare, powerful creatures could be hiding in this unexplored forest? As she peered eagerly into the trees, however, she thought she felt a hint of what had made Pidgeot nervous. Something felt wrong about this forest, for all that it looked innocent enough and was teeming with the usual woodland noises. Suddenly her eye caught a flash of movement and Pidgeot let out an exclamation. Katherine was sure that she had seen something cream-colored dart away from her, deeper into the trees. She stepped forward and raised a hand to motion to Pidgeot, fully intending to pursue the mysterious creature, when she was stopped by a rustling in the underbrush.

Something else was coming their way, and though it wasn't very large by the sound of it, you could never be sure about how rare it was. After all, eevee might be small, but they were still some of the most sought-after creatures in the pokémon world. Katherine took a step back, scanning the underbrush to try do determine where the whatever-it-was would emerge. She didn't have to search long before she saw that a patch of shrubbery not six feet away was shuddering ominously. Pidgeot had already noticed this and sidled closer to the spot.

"Pidgeot, get ready for a battle," Katherine whispered to him. He nodded eagerly, his dark eyes alight with anticipation. Katherine smiled to herself in satisfaction; if there was one thing that would banish Pidgeot's fears about this place, it would be a nice, rousing pokémon battle. Katherine reached into one of her pockets and withdrew an ultra ball. No larger than a marble in its minimized form, she was easily able to conceal it in her palm. Nothing would make a pokémon turn around and head for shelter faster than the sight of an ultra ball, and she didn't want to scare the mystery creature headed her way off. It was possible that a pokémon out here, where human contact was incredibly minimal, wouldn't recognize an ultra ball, the mark of a highly experienced trainer who had won enough battles to be able to afford such advanced equipment, but she wasn't willing to risk it.

Suddenly, the pokémon emerged from the bushes. Small and purple, with wide ears and long, white whiskers, it stared up at Katherine suspiciously. Katherine nearly laughed aloud as she scornfully returned the ultra ball to her pocket. How silly of her, getting all worked up like that over a rattata! Well, if they managed to infest nearly every part of the mainland it was really no surprise that a few should have set up camp out here, too. "Come on, Pidgeot, it's just a rattata. Let's go see if we can pick up the trail of that pokémon that we saw earlier," she said, starting towards the forest.

The rattata didn't seem at all pleased by this idea. It began to chatter angrily, bristling and showing its enormous incisors threateningly. Again, Katherine nearly laughed at the comical sight. A tiny rodent pokémon challenging a well-trained terminal evolution over four times its size? It was absurd. But the laughter died when she didn't hear an answering cry from Pidgeot. "Uh, Pidgeot?" she asked, turning around to stare at her companion.

The bird pokémon was staring at the rattata in shock, his eyes bulging. Pidgeot shrieked and opened his wings suddenly, startling the rattata somewhat. Katherine was mystified. Pidgeot was treating this little rattata like a dangerous foe, trying to intimidate it with his impressive size and wingspan. The purple rat seemed a little daunted at first, but quickly regained its nerve and began chattering all the louder, now making quick dashes toward Pidgeot.

Now Katherine really did laugh. "I don't believe this, Pidgeot! Show this little shrimp why you don't mess with one of my pokémon! Use wing attack!" On any normal day, Pidgeot would have obligingly given the rattata a hefty clout with his powerful wings that would surely have put the diminutive creature down for the count.

Today was not a normal day, however. Pidgeot didn't even seem to hear Katherine. He was now screaming loudly at the Rattata. "Geooottt! Ge! Ge! Ge!" His feathers were bristling, his magnificent crest was raised, and he was occasionally beating the air with his wings, the resulting gust of wind blasting the rattata back repeatedly. The normal-type determinedly picked itself up each time, however, and kept coming.

Though Pidgeot was certainly doing his best intimidation routine, he was actually horribly scared, or so Katherine observed. He was loud and proud and apparently ready and raring to battle, but whenever the rattata advanced he fell back, and whenever it made a sudden lunge for him he would scramble away so quickly that he nearly tripped over his own tail feathers several times. Puzzled, Katherine again scanned the nearby trees for anything that might be making Pidgeot nervous.

It was then that she realized something utterly terrifying. The forest behind the rattata had inexplicably gone silent. Gone were the calls of the pidgey nesting in the trees, the drone of beedrill as they went about their work in the distance. The hairs on Katherine's neck began to rise. A trainer for nearly a year now, she had learned to listen to the land for the subtle signs that it gave. Right now, they were all screaming, Danger! Danger! Run while you still can! Something was coming through the trees that scared the whole forest silly, and Katherine had a feeling that she wanted to be out of its way as well. She turned her attention back to the strange display going on between her pidgeot and the rattata. "Forget it, Pidgeot! We're getting out of here!"

Pidgeot gave a cry of appreciation as Katherine ran over to climb onto his back. She had barely had time to clamber aboard before he took off, pumping his wings furiously to gain altitude. He flew as Katherine had seen him fly only once before, and that was the time that the duo was being tailed by a full flock of skarmory. That had been after she had stumbled upon a large cluster of their nests and had unwisely decided to take a closer look at the eggs within one of them. An adult had spotted her as she did so, and the flock had given chase in rage. She had been sure to avoid the area ever since.

Pidgeot's rapid ascent soon caused the island to dwindle away to a mere speck beneath them once more. He soared back out over the open ocean in the direction that they had come. Katherine felt herself grow calmer as the island faded away into the distance, and even had the capacity to be slightly annoyed. She couldn't expect any further exploring today, as Pidgeot would certainly be exhausted after his wild escape and the terror that he had experienced on the island. This was what puzzled Katherine most. Why had he been so afraid of that little rattata? She had never seen Pidgeot act like that in the face of a wild pokémon before.

She couldn't ask him about that now, of course. He was too busy navigating, retracing their flight path over the constantly shifting waves. Katherine certainly didn't want to distract him and potentially cause them to end up far away from their camp, or even worse, end up missing the continent altogether. She gave a small shrug, deciding to ask him about it later, after he had calmed down a bit.

Unnoticed by trainer and pokémon, the hood on the back of Katherine's sweatshirt stirred. Two cunning red eyes peered out from the fold in the fabric, small white whiskers testing the frigid air.


	3. The Escape

**Chapter Two: The Escape**

The ninetales was out for an early morning stroll. She had descended from on high to see her domain and its inhabitants, the other pokémon of the island that lived in its forest. Of course, the vast majority of them hid at her approach, but those that she did spot she knew to be her loyal servants. It was a beautiful day, dappled sunlight reaching through the canopy to light the ninetales' fur in a patchwork of alternating fiery radiance and muted gold. She was both an awe- and terror-inspiring sight as she padded casually to nowhere in particular.

A noise caught her attention, though she did not pause in her regal stride. Some pokémon was crashing through the underbrush to her right, clearly coming in her direction. The ninetales gave a small sigh of irritation, the weary sigh of a ruler long disposed to dealing with idiots and bunglers. No doubt the approaching creature was one of her numerous underlings, on his or her way to complain about something or other. Moments later, a Persian erupted from the undergrowth, a female that the ninetales recognized as the one known as Nishivma. The persian was out of breath, apparently having run for quite some distance. Nishivma bowed her head respectfully before blurting out, "Urgent news, Mistress!"

"What is it?" the ninetales replied in a bored tone. Few things that the denizens of the forest deemed "urgent" were actually of much concern.

"A trainer!" Nishivma gasped. "On the beach! Jeremy ran out to her!"

"_What!_" the ninetales snarled, all traces of boredom gone. Her eyes burned and Nishivma cowered back, whimpering. "It is your duty to prevent any of the Cursed from leaving the forest, especially when there are trainers about! And why has this trainer not entered the trees?"

"I am sorry, Mistress, but I think Jeremy distracted her. She is very strong. I was afraid..."

"You should be far more afraid of me than of any human scum," the ninetales snarled, cutting Nishivma off. "It appears that I must deal with the situation myself, as you are apparently too incompetent to handle even such a simple thing. And if I were you," the ninetales continued, glaring threateningly at the cowering Nishivma, "I would pray that I had not completely failed in my duties."

With that, the ninetales was off and running. For all that she was waited upon by the pokémon of the forest, she was far from soft and complacent. She darted through the forest with a speed and grace that any Arcanine would be envious of, leaping effortlessly over rotting logs and swerving around trees without breaking stride in the slightest. The few denizens of the forest that had not already taken cover did so, doing everything in their power to stay out of the way of their fiery Mistress. As the ninetales sped on, the air surrounding her grew steadily warmer as her anger stoked the fire burning within her, and as her speed and rage increased still more she left a trail of smoldering foliage in her wake.

With a final great leap, she soared over the final barrier of bushes that marked the edge of the forest and out onto the grassy strip between trees and sand. She landed heavily, her paws carving deep gouges in the earth as she checked her incredible momentum. So focused was she on her goal that she had not even felt the strange shiver of power pass across her as she left her domain, and she failed notice the way that the grass surrounding her blackened and fell to ash as the extreme heat she radiated incinerated it. Panting slightly, the ninetales furiously turned her head this way and that, searching for the foolish trainer who dared trespass in her domain and the still more foolish Cursed pokémon who was attempting to escape her grasp.

A shadow passed across her face and she whipped her head upwards, craning her neck as she searched the sky. A pidgeot was circling over her, climbing higher and higher into the vaulted heavens that were beyond her power to control. There was clearly a trainer on its back; the human had escaped, then. As the ninetales glared at the departing trainer, seething with hatred and frustration, her second sight caught something else. A faint aura of magic surrounded the trainer, a fiery halo that the ninetales could only just make out as the pidgeot banked away, heading east. Recognizing hazy power signature as a curse of her own working, the ninetales felt an icy trickle of fear threaten to drown the flame that constantly burned inside of her. It couldn't be! Eyes locked on the swiftly shrinking form of pidgeot and rider, she let out a howl. The eerie sound, suffused with anger and despair, rang out across the nervously silent island, striking fear into the hearts of its inhabitants.


	4. The Curse

**Chapter Three: The Curse**

Katherine was considerably relieved when, just a little over half an hour later, the ocean broke up against a rocky shore and the great Ilex forest rolled out beneath her instead of trackless waves. The ancient, close-packed trees that cast the floor of the forest in perpetual twilight cloaked the land below in an almost uniform carpet of dark green, their swaying boughs mirroring the heaving sea, broken only by small islands of open ground where one of the great trees had fallen and carved out a haven of sunlight. It was one of these that Katherine was looking for, or rather, that Pidgeot was looking for, as his trainer was completely lost.

Fortunately for both of them, Pidgeot was naturally adept at navigating by landmarks and had an excellent memory and sense of direction. It was fortunate, too, that sight was not all that he would have to rely on as he searched for their campsite. The great bird angled his flight downward, leveling off just above the trees. The wind of his passage stirred the branches below into a frenzy and tore up a cloud of loose leaves to dance in their wake. Katherine grinned and almost laughed, the terror of the island already fading as she flew above the sunlight-soaked canopy, so different from the gloomy interior of the forest below.

Suddenly, an overpowering stench struck her almost like a physical blow. She gagged reflexively, her stomach heaving, and even Pidgeot, for all his battle training, faltered as the scent washed over them. The trees beneath them suddenly disappeared, leaving Pidgeot floating over a small, grassy clearing. He braked hastily, backwinging furiously as he slowly lowered himself and his trainer to the ground below. Katherine at last managed to wipe the grimace off of her face, brushing away the tears that had sprung up in response to the horrifying smell. Here, close to the ground, it only seemed worse, a hideous amalgamation of skunk and rotting eggs, laced with the sickly sweet of fruit left too long in the sun. Katherine tried to clamp down on her disgust and sternly reminded herself that she would grow used to the smell; in fact, in a few minutes she wouldn't even notice it.

Pidgeot's talons at last touched the earth and sunk in immediately, the huge bird clinging to the ground as though he planned to never leave it again. He heaved a sigh as Katherine slid off of his back, shuddering slightly and fluffing out his feathers. After a cursory glance around the clearing to make sure that everything appeared all right, Katherine reached for his pokéball.

"Good job this morning, Pidgeot," she said, and he nodded wearily. "Hey, listen, I know I shouldn't have made you go down to that island when you didn't want to. I'm really sorry, and I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there to bail me out. Thanks." Pidgeot nodded again and made an odd little shrug with his wings, and though his eyes remained dull and tired, Katherine thought she saw a flicker of pride in them. "Care for a rest?" Katherine asked him, grinning as she raised the pokéball to eye level. Pidgeot gratefully returned to his pokéball in a burst of red energy, and Katherine made for her backpack, which was still leaning against the large, rotted-out stump that sat in the center of the clearing.

Absently clipping Pidgeot's pokéball back to her belt, Katherine carefully sat down on the stump, making a face at the way its rotting bark crumbled off on her skin and cltothes. She worked her hands opened and closed ruefully; they were stiff and numb after the cold, fast flight from the island back to camp. Resolving to buy a good pair of gloves before attempting another long flight, she surveyed her campsite once again. It was just as she had left it; there was the fire pit that she had constructed a few days ago, and spread out next to it, her sleeping bag. A few strange bands of dead grass crisscrossed the clearing, looking almost like massive slug tracks. Only one thing missing, really.

Scanning the forest's edge but not spotting anything, Katherine called, "I'm back, Muk! Where are you?"

The foliage near the edge of the clearing shifted and rustled as something large moved through it. A large pile of purple sludge shoved its way through the undergrowth and out into the open field beyond, oozing forward in a series of disgusting rippling motions. Katherine could almost have mistaken it for a pile of toxic waste come horribly to life, but for the small eyes that peered out from amongst the ridges of slime. The digusting mass shivered to a halt some three feet away from her, a huge hand distinguishing itself from the featureless slime and slowly rising into the air, dripping gobbets of sludge. At the same time, a huge pit appeared beneath the strange creature's eyes as it slowly opened its huge maw.

"Muk! Muuuuk!" the pokémon gurgled enthusiastically, waving its gooey pseudopod at Katherine.

"Yes, I'm glad to see you, too," Katherine replied with a strained smile, returning the wave. This close, Muk's scent was absolutely overpowering. "Have a good morning?"

"Mukmuk. Muk. Muuk!"

"Well, that sounds nice. No problems, then?"

Katherine was very fond of her muk. While not the most sanitary nor the most odiferous of her companions, it was certainly one of the most friendly. Much to Muk's dismay, however, no one seemed eager to receive one of his affectionate handshakes or pats on the back; in fact, most people and pokémon kept their distance from him as much as possible. This, of course, made Muk and excellent guard. Almost anyone, upon catching the scent of a muk in the air, would turn and hurry off in the other direction. Even thieves and pokémon trainers would be reluctant to investigate a muk's territory, as generally the rewards weren't worth the smell. And in the unlikely event that someone should brave Muk's stench and stumble upon her campsite with the intent of doing it harm, Muk was an excellent battler and could easily dispatch of a fumes-dizzied foe.

"Well, Muk, it's about lunchtime, so if you want to head out and grab something to eat, the rest of us will just be hanging around here for a bit."

"Mukmuk," Muk replied a little sadly before turning and oozing off towards the tree line again, leaving a broad trail of dying vegetation in his wake.

Katherine watched him go for a minute, then turned back to the tree stump, smiling slightly as she reached for her pack. Seating herself, she rifled through the contents of her backpack until she found the lunch that she had packed for herself that morning, wrapped in cellophane and smelling faintly of peanut butter, and set it aside on the stump before diving back into her capacious bag. "I wonder why Pidgeot was so scared of that rattata this morning," she thought aloud as she dredged up some pokéchow.

"Maybe because he can tell that I'm no ordinary rattata," a small voice said from very nearby.

Katherine jumped slightly, accidentally dropping the pokéchow canister. She twisted around hurriedly, only to find herself staring into the grinning face of a rattata. The rodent was sitting uncomfortably close to her lunch, and his large red eyes seemed to glow with merriment.

"You…how…" Katherine spluttered.

"Oh, quite simple really. I climbed aboard during all of the excitement back on the beach. Your hood is really quite comfortable, you know," the rattata told her with a hint of smugness in his voice.

"But…you speak English!" Katherine exclaimed.

"Good observation!" the pokémon replied, grin broadening. When Katherine just stared at him, he sighed and added, "It's my native tongue."

"Wait," Katherine said, her mind still trying to catch up to the impossible situation that it had been presented with. "No. No, that can't be. You're a pokémon! All you're supposed to be able to say is your name!"

"I!" the rattata exclaimed, apparently extremely offended, "I am no more a pokémon than you are a banana!"

Katherine tilted her head slightly, as though wondering if the talking rodent would look different from another angle. Now that her initial shock was beginning to wear off, she was starting to suspect that this was some sort of practical joke. "But you look just like a rattata," she said doubtfully. "What are you? Are you a pokémorph?" Katherine had heard of the horrific experiments conducted by Team Rocket and other evil organizations that half-transformed people into pokémon, or gave them the ability to change into a certain pokémon. She'd never heard of anyone being turned into a rattata, though.

As her thoughts spiraled into a confused jumble, shook her head, still perplexed, and for good measure added, "And I look nothing like a banana."

"No, I'm not a pokémon. What I wouldn't give to be at least half human again! But neither am I really a rattata, you see. And as for the banana thing, well, I guess you don't, really. It was just your nose that gave me the impression…"

"This is ridiculous!" Katherine shrieked, her frustration at last bubbling over. "I'm being insulted by a little rattata that claims he's a person and who won't give me a straight answer on anything!"

"All right, all right," the pokémon sighed huffily. "Excuse me for trying to lighten the mood a little bit. What I said before was true, though. I'm actually a human who's been turned into a rattata."

"Sort of like the Poliwag Prince?" Katherine asked. "You need someone to kiss you, and then you'll turn back into a person?"

The rattata's mirth seemed to be ebbing away, and his whiskers actually began to droop as Katherine watched. "If only it were that simple," he sighed. "No, I have been cursed. That's why I had to escape with you, see? I've been trapped on that island for…well, too long. I could never have found a way to lift the curse if I stayed there. I knew that if I was to have any chance of being restored to my former self I would have to get off that accursed isle."

Katherine shook her head, turning away from the rattata with the excuse of picking up the pokéchow that she had dropped earlier. In truth, she needed time to think. Talking rattatas that were actually people? Cursed islands? It seemed she had gone out for a little adventure and accidentally brought a huge, tangled dilemma crashing down on her head. Her stomach growled, displeased with the delay in getting lunch together. Sighing, Katherine turned back to the pokémon. "Look, rattata, or whatever you are, we can discuss this after lunch. My pokémon and I need to eat."

"The name's Jeremy," the rattata announced, holding a white forepaw out to her. Katherine awkwardly extended her index finger and Jeremy took it, shaking it solemnly. He then grinned, perking up. "Speaking of grub, could I get a bit? I'm starving."

Katherine had returned to digging through her pack but continued to eye Jeremy askance. "Well, I don't have any more human food. You'll have to have some pokéchow or berries or something."

Jeremy shrugged, an odd gesture for a rattata. "It's gotta be better than what I could scrounge up on the island. Give me whatever you've got."

Katherine nodded absently, pulling various food items out of her bag and arranging them carefully before herself. Meal preparation was always a big hassle for Katherine, largely due to the disparate tastes of her pokémon. The only one she didn't have to cook for was Muk, as she flatly refused to cart his favorite foods—industrial waste and the like—all over the region with her. He was on his own to rustle up grub, but he didn't seem to mind very much. Her other pokémon, however, grudgingly accepted that letting them out to hunt made Katherine uncomfortable but in return demanded that their meals be prepared precisely to their specific tastes. Although all that she could afford to feed them on a regular basis was generic dry pokéchow, each of them preferred that different seasonings be added to their bowls.

Thus the litany that played through Katherine's head as she mechanically dumped a bit of pokéchow into each of the bowls and started adding condiments. Ketchup for Electabuzz, but make sure his bowl is not next to Donphan's; the ground-type loathed anything remotely resembling a tomato by-product and would make a fuss about going to eat somewhere else otherwise. For Donphan, nuts; mixed berries for Heracross, make sure that none are crushed or overripe; the jerky for Arcanine, of course; and make sure that nothing has made its way into Pidgeot's bowl—being more of a plain-vanilla fellow, the bird preferred to take his meals unadulterated.

Her task completed, Katherine offered the various additives to Jeremy and grimaced as he commented on the wide selection. Dragging her pokémon's favorite foods as well as their bowls back and forth across the continent got tiresome, to say the least. She knew that she spoiled them all rotten, but they were happy to return the favor by trouncing her opponents in battle, so she didn't complain.

Making sure that everything was ready, Katherine let the rest of her pokémon out. "Lunchtime, everybody!" she announced as she tossed her pokéballs out into the field. Her pokémon burst out of confinement enthusiastically, dashing over to their respective bowls and digging in with gusto. Katherine neatly caught their now-empty pokéballs as they reversed trajectory and came spinning back to her hand. She sat on the stump next to Jeremy, eating her sandwich and sipping from her canteen as she mulled over the day's events. Fortunately, her team seemed too engaged in their lunches to take any notice of the rattata; she didn't want any of them freaking out like Pidgeot had.

For his part, Jeremy had scorned the dried food and was instead feasting on the condiments. At this point, he was stuffing his whiskered face with berries, having already polished off several pieces of jerky. When he appeared finished, sitting back on his haunches and beginning to groom his whiskers, which were caked with ketchup and bits of nuts, Katherine decided that it was time to get some answers.

"All right, rodent," she said in a stern voice, "just what is going on here, anyway?"


	5. The Dilemma

Author's Notes: Wow, more positive reviews! Thank you all for sharing your opinions. And I'm really glad that you liked it that much, Midnight-Phoenix.  
  
Anyway, I'd like to apologize in advance for the rather short chapter here. The chapters in general should be seeing a great increase in length soon.  
  
And since Quickedit seems to be just plain screwed up, I am going to go with a new format for the chapters from now on, which involves leaving the title on the left.  
  
The Dilemma  
  
The Ninetales paced restlessly back and forth across the clifftop, tossing her proud head and fuming silently. The noonday sun beat down upon the barren, grassy cliff, lighting her luxurious pelt in a blaze of golden light. Down below, the forest had restored its normal existence, though its sounds were oddly muted, as though the Pidgeys thought that by chirping too loudly they might bring their Mistress' wrath down upon them.  
  
In truth, the Ninetales could have cared less whether or not the forest's inhabitants made an unseemly amount of noise. Her thoughts were far away. One of the forest's inhabitants had managed to escape with that human scum. Who knew where he was now, or what he was doing. One thing was certain, however; he was sure to be seeking some way to bring the attention of the human world down upon her little island. She almost chuckled to herself at that thought. Let them come! There was no trainer who could best her magic, escape her wrath if they set foot into her forest. No, she was far more worried about the others that might come upon hearing the news. Other Ninetales, older and more powerful than she. The brainwashed fools! They would surely try to wrest the island from her grasp, remove the curse from the forest.  
  
The Ninetales heaved a sigh and stopped pacing, looking out over the ocean. Jeremy must be stopped! He must be returned to the island before he could spread the word of his curse. But how? Her curse would remain upon him however far he wandered, of course, but he knew that her true power did not extend beyond her own island. She could not leave it or risk its inhabitants slipping their bondage and rising up against her. She could not send one of the island's inhabitants to perform the task for her, as she could force them to do her bidding here, where her curse lay heavy in the air, but she could not force them to obey beyond its borders unless she maintained eye contact and that, of course, was impossible.  
  
Hopelessly, she sprawled out in the sparse grass of the clifftop, placing her delicate snout between her forepaws. Why can't they just leave me alone? she thought woefully. All I ever wanted was a place of my own, free of THEM. But no, they just keep coming. Curious as Rattata and far more numerous. I cannot allow those who trespass here to escape...  
  
Chill ocean breezes played on the empty clifftop, teasing the Ninetales' fur and toying with the grass, but she did not notice, staring fixedly at something only she could see. 


	6. The Warning

Author's Notes: Once again, thank you for all of the reviews, especially for the explanation of Sue-ism. I'll try to avoid that! Also, I did notice that you had added me to your favorite authors/stories list, Midnight Phoenix. Thanks a bunch for that!

Finally, I have noticed that there are a lot of "staring off into space" chapter endings that seem to be cropping up, so I'm going to really try to limit those from now on.

**Chatper Six: The Warning**

Jeremy sighed and looked up at Katherine with a solemn expression. "It's a long story. Why don't I tell you on the way?"

"On the way where? I have plenty of time. Why don't we just sit here for a bit while you explain this whole mess to me?" Katherine asked in a slightly menacing tone. She was tired of the creature's quiet evasions. She wanted answers, not more stalling.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure that you have all that much time," Jeremy told her. "You don't honestly expect my Mistress to let my escape go unpunished, do you?"

"That's a good place to start," Katherine replied, ignoring the question. "How about you tell me just who this mysterious "Mistress" is and why exactly you're so important to her."

"My Mistress..." the Ratatta's eyes slid out of focus as they looked inward rather than up at Katherine. Jeremy blinked, shook his head, then looked away from Katherine. He spoke without turning back to her. "She is the one who cursed me. She is the Mistress, the ruler of the forest. No one knows her true name; we simply call her our Mistress. She is a Ninetales, one of great power and hatred."

"So you're saying that some Ninetales cursed you and forced you to stay in that little forest?" Katherine asked, skeptical. "Why would she do that?"

"She hates humans. I stumbled upon that little island much as did you, but I had not your luck. I set foot inside the forest, and then she knew I was there. She is determined that her island never be brought to the attention of the outside world, and so she traps all humans who enter the forest there. There seems to be some other dimension to it as well, something that has to do with her past, but no one ever explained it to me," Jeremy turned and looked back into Katherine's face once again. "My Mistress' curse does not extend across the entire island; she has no need of that. It merely encircles most of the forest. She controls all those within its boundaries, and she can feel whenever any human enters it. Had I not distracted you, you surely would have entered and been lost. None who have entered have ever escaped, save myself. You would have been cursed as well, as I have been."

"So you're saying you were a trainer like me..." Katherine began, but Jeremy cut her off.

"I wasn't joking when I said that I would tell you on the way, you know," he said pointedly. "My Mistress will do anything to recover me, you see. She can't risk my finding out how to break the curse that she laid upon myself and the other trainers who trespassed in her forest. She will find it difficult to find me, but be assured that she will find away."

"And why should that concern me?" Katherine asked angrily. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want any part in this whole curse business? That maybe I have my own safety, and that of my Pokemon, to think of?"

"I am afraid that you have no choice in the matter," Jeremy said softly, his large eyes staring earnestly into Katherine. "You know my secret now. My Mistress cannot allow you to remain free to spread the word of her actions. She does not fear humans, but she knows that her own people would not stand to hear of her terrible deeds. She will come for you as she comes for me, and time is of the essence."

Jeremy's words chilled Katherine's blood. How could it be that just this morning she had been just another trainer off in search of adventure, and now she found herself caught up in a dangerous plot? What could she do?

Several moments of silence passed as Katherine quietly thought through the problem, trying to find a way out. In the end she found none. "It looks like I have no choice," she sighed. "Where is it that you think we should go, then?"

Jeremy shrugged. "Why, to the only ones who would know how to break my Mistress' curse, save herself: other Ninetales." His gaze suddenly went to the Pokeballs at on her belt, his eyes lighting up eagerly. "You're a trainer. Do you have a Ninetales?"

"Actually, I used to have a Vulpix, but I traded it to one of my friends for a Growlithe. That's how I got my Arcanine," Katherine explained. She turned to look fondly at Arcanine, one of her most loyal Pokemon. The powerfully built red wolf-like Pokemon had finished his lunch and was now running his large tongue around the inside of his bowl, hopefully checking for any morsels that he might possibly have missed.

"What about your friend, then? Do you think that maybe they might be able to let us have a talk with their Vulpix, or Ninetales if they evolved it?" Jeremy pressed.

Katherine's brow furrowed as she thought. "Well...I don't know where he is at the moment, but I'm sure his mother knows. She lives in Goldenrod, which isn't far from here. Maybe we could head over there and ask her about it."

Jeremy nodded. "That sounds like a wise idea. How soon can we leave?"

Katherine assessed the situation. All of her Pokemon were done eating, save for her Donphan, who was slowly but steadily crunching through the last bit of his food. Pidgeot was preening himself carefully and Arcanine had given up trying to find any more food in his bowl and was now rolling in the grass, an activity that seemed incongruous with his normal powerful dignity. Heracross had challenged Electabuzz to an arm wrestling match. It looked as though Electabuzz was winning again this time. Muk could be expected back at any time. All in all, it wouldn't be too long before she could have camp packed up and be ready to move out.

"It won't be too long. I need to wash out my Pokemons' food bowls and pack stuff up, but other than that there's nothing to worry about. I'd say that we could get moving in oh, say, half an hour."

Jeremy nodded with satisfaction. "That would be fine, I think."

Katherine set about packing up her camp. She returned the various items that she had been carrying in her cargo pants to their respective areas of her pack and rolled up her sleeping bag. She crumpled up the paper bag that had previously held her lunch and stowed it to be thrown away later. Slinging her canteen over her shoulder and pulling a rag and a bar of soap out of her pack, she set out to retrieve her Pokemon's bowls from them.

She didn't encounter any resistance until she attempted to retrieve Donphan's bowl. The stocky ground Pokemon was still not completely finished. "Don" he grunted irritably as he saw Katherine approaching. He scooped the remaining food out of his bowl with his thick, armored trunk and shoved it into his mouth all at once. His cheeks bulging, he chewed noisily and glared at Katherine as she took his bowl away. He hated being rushed.

Katherine took the stack of dirty bowls down to a nearby stream. The water ran swift and clear along the forest floor. A pair of Poliwags that had been frolicking in the rushing current started and disappeared beneath the surface at Katherine's approach. She set the stack of bowls down at the water's edge and kneeled before the stream. Her canteen was nearly empty, so she carefully refilled it, slinging it back over her shoulder. She then turned her attention to the task of doing the dishes. She rinsed each bowl in the rushing stream, scrubbing them with the soap and finally drying them with her rag. When the pile of dirty bowls had been transformed into a stack of clean, neatly stacked dishes, she gathered them up and set off back to camp. An unpleasant stench that assaulted her nose told her that Muk had returned while she had been away. As she neared the clearing, she heard a commotion drifting from it to her from between the trees. She sighed and shook her head. She had a pretty good idea what was happening.

Indeed, when Katherine returned to her campsite, she found Jeremy to be standing on the stump where she had left him, only now he was in a battle position. His purple fur bristled and he had slightly arched his back. He was chattering away in the language of Rattatas and showing his incisors. Muk was slowly oozing in his direction, his huge hand extended toward the small Pokemon.

The rest of Katherine's Pokemon were watching with interest and some degree of amusement, with the exception of Pidgeot. He had been too preoccupied with lunch to notice Jeremy's presence, but now that the Rattata was in plain view he had begun to become uneasy. He apparently recognized the rodent and was standing rigid, staring at him uncertainly.

For his part, Muk was just pleased to see a new friend of his trainer's. He loved friends. He was fully intending to welcome Jeremy onto Katherine's Pokemon team with a warm, if rather squishy and unpleasant, handshake. It was a tradition of his to welcome each and every new Pokemon that Katherine caught in this manner, as he assumed that this was what Jeremy was. Jeremy was clearly not pleased with this idea. Katherine hurried between the two and tried to prevent the situation from escalating.

"It's okay, Jeremy, it's just my Muk. He's very friendly, as you can see."

"Muuuuuk! Mukmuk muuuuk!" Muk agreed happily.

Katherine decided that now might be a good time to formally introduce Jeremy to her Pokemon and called out to the rest of her team, "Come on guys, I want you to meet our new friend!"

Her Pokemon approached the tree stump curiously, with the exception of Pidgeot, who hung back reluctantly and who was burbling to himself uncertainly. "This is Jeremy, guys," Katherine told them. "I didn't actually capture him, but he's going to be sticking with us for a bit, okay? And Muk, I don't really think that he needs a handshake. Your hand is almost bigger than his entire body, you see?"

Muk drew back sadly, though he did realize that that was the case. The rest of Katherine's team came closer. Arcanine sniffed Jeremy interestedly, but then seemed uncertain about him. He looked up at Katherine with a worried expression. The rest of her Pokemon also seemed uneasy around the Rattata. "Don't worry, he won't hurt you or anything. He's a friend," Katherine said to them. As she said this, however, Katherine wondered if it was really true. Sure, there wasn't much that a Rattata could do to her Pokemon team, but what if he really was something else? He even claimed that he wasn't a Rattata, after all. Could he be some sort of spy from the island that was trying to lead Katherine deeper into whatever sort of mystery lingered over that horrible place?

Katherine tried to push those fears to the back of her mind. There really wasn't any way to find out if Jeremy was a spy without stepping right into one of his traps, or at least getting to know him a little better. She went back to talking to her Pokemon. "We're going to take a little vacation from the Gym Circuit for a while. I want to see if I can meet up with Mark. You remember Mark, don't you?"

Her Pokemon nodded eagerly. They liked Mark a lot. Arcanine howled excitedly. "Caniiiiiine!" Mark had been his first trainer.

"All right, then. We'll get moving." Katherine unclipped her Pokemon's Pokeballs from her belt and recalled all of them, with the exception of Arcanine.

"Ready for a little run, Arcanine?" she asked him.

"Arrrr! Arcanine!" he roared exuberantly.

Kathirine smiled and slung her pack over her back. She then looked uncertainly down at Jeremy. "You, uh, want to ride on my shoulder or something?" she asked him.

"Sure," he replied gamely, making an impressive leap from the tree stump and onto her arm, where he clung with his small claws before pulling himself up to her shoulder.

Katherine hoisted herself up onto Arcanine's broad back. He set off at an easy pace, weaving through the underbrush. Once they reached one of Ilex Forest's more well-kept paths, he broke out into a flat-out run. Arcanine ran so gracefully that he seemed almost to be floating over the ground, or flying, as Katherine's Pokedex put it. The wind howled in her face nearly as badly as it had while she had been flying on Pidgeot, but she was used to this and was determined to get some answers out of Jeremy. She couldn't think of what to start with, though. Suddenly, an odd question popped into her head.

"When Pidgeot and I first landed on that island of yours, we saw a weird creamy Pokemon that ran away into the forest. Do you know what it was?"

Jeremy bared his teeth. "That was Nishivma, one of the guardians of the forest. She's a Persian."

"So what was she supposed to do? Keep me from coming into the forest? She wasn't doing a very good job of it."

Jeremy chuckled. "No, she's not supposed to keep people out. My Mistress wants trainers to enter the forest. The guardians are intended to keep the Cursed Pokemon, like myself, from leaving the forest. She should have stopped me from running out to you, but she could tell that you were a good trainer and didn't want to risk her fine pelt."

"The guardians watch you all of the time? Doesn't that get a little tedious for them?"

Jeremy shook his head. "Not at all. The only reason that Nishivma was skulking around was because I had already tried to escape once today, earlier in the morning. She thought I might try it again if I assumed that she wasn't watching."

"Escape to where? You were on an island, after all. You could never have made it all the way to shore if you tried to swim yourself, and if the island really is cursed, then there wouldn't be any water Pokemon who would want to go near it and would help you, either."

Jeremy's eyes acquired a strange, faraway look. "I wasn't running to the water," he said in a strange tone. "There is one spot of forest on the island where my Mistress has no power. The curse does not extend to it. The most beautiful flowers grow there..." He trailed off, staring off into the distance.

"What's so special about a bunch of flowers?" Katherine asked irritably. All of this symbolic stuff was starting to get on her nerves.

If Jeremy heard her, he didn't reply.


	7. The Meadow

Author's Notes: More reviews! I can't get enough of them! Thank you all! As for the whole flowers thing, I'm glad you liked it, because I felt for some reason that it was a little cliché. There's more on that in this chapter, actually.

This chapter marks the essential end of the "exposition" of this fanfic. Later chapters will generally be longer and include more action as events begin a more steady climb towards the climax.

Chapter Seven: The Meadow 

After several hours of meditation, the Nintales suddenly sat upright. She had the answer. How simple!

She chuckled to herself as she stood once again, stretching and settling down to groom her mussed fur. She went over the plan again in her mind as her tongue slid over her fur. As it turned out, she would have to rely neither on herself nor on the island's other inhabitants to bring the errant Jeremy and that human trainer back to the isle. Tonight, she would wait for Grottlis down near the water's edge, where he always appeared. She knew that she could trust him to understand the situation and hunt down the escapees.

Grottlis was a Gengar, a wandering soul who drifted across the world. He haunted the Nintales' island as regularly as clockwork, at almost midnight, when the moon neared it's apex. He appeared mysteriously at the water's edge, his glowing red eyes piercing the darkness with their eerie light. Grottlis had been the only one who cared for the Ninetales when, so many years ago, she had found herself alone and unwanted.

The Ninetales pushed that thought away out of habit, looking over her coat. She was satisfied with the grooming job that she had done, and so set off for an afternoon walk. Her mind whirled with happy thoughts, with satisfaction and sweet visions of revenge. She was oblivious to the happenings around her and didn't even notice as the forest once again went silent as she passed through it. Though she wasn't running full-tilt through the trees, encompassed by a fiery fury, the animals of the forest knew their Mistress' moods to be mercurial and odd, and the Cursed knew never to show their whiskered, feathered, or scaly faces in her presence.

Though she had been wandering aimlessly, the Ninetales found herself at the edge of a place that she knew all too well. Here, the forest changed abruptly. The trees thinned and finally gave way to a little meadow, filled with wildflowers and tall grass. The vengeful thoughts vanished from the Ninetales' mind as she surveyed the field and a smoldering rage slowly crept into their place. For reasons unknown, this place was beyond the reach of her magic. It was placed oddly, nearly at the island's center, at the base of the huge cliff that ruled its northern half.

The Ninetales scornfully stepped across the invisible boundary that separated her domain from this odd island upon an island, the place encompassed by her influence and yet free from it. The familiar tingle of magic shivered from her muzzle to the tips of her nine tails as she stepped out and into the place that seemed terribly familiar and yet completely alien.

To her annoyance, the Ninetales felt her anger slowly evaporate as she walked amongst the thinning trees. Something about this place seemed to dull her rage, as it banked her magic. As she entered the tall grass, the Ninetales found herself suddenly contemplating one of the meadow's flowers.

She didn't know the name of it, and so simply called it the fire-flower. To most it would have appeared a rampant weed, with thick, thorny branches. But these spiny protuberances were adorned with small, beautiful flowers. Their petals were oddly shaped, almost jagged. This, combined with the fact that they were a brilliant orange color, put the Ninetales in mind of tiny tongues of flame.

For some reason, the Ninetales found herself making excuses that allowed her to stay for a long time in the small meadow. Though she would never admit it to anyone, least of all herself, this place somehow put her at peace, the one area where she truly felt at home.


	8. The Answer

Author's Notes: As previously mentioned, chapters will see a significant increase in length from this point on. I'll try to keep them under ten pages, however. I have difficulty reading things on the screen and proofreading anything longer than that would be a real nightmare.

Anyway, this chapter features my first Pokemon battle. I want to know how I did with it, so let me know, please! I really enjoy reading battle scenes in other fics, so I want to try to make mine enjoyable as well. Also let me know what you think of the longer chapter format.

**Chapter Eight: The Answer**

It wasn't long before Arcanine had galloped through the gatehouse that separated Ilex Forest from the route beyond, bringing himself and his riders out onto a sunlit, grassy road. In the distance huge buildings rose, most notably a tall, black tower that quested towards the sky. Closer by was a cheery cottage with a large, fenced-in enclosure. Katherine could see trainers eagerly hunting through the grass, searching for the Pokemon that made their homes there. Arcanine, still intent on his destination, continued onward without slowing his pace, although he skirted the patches of grass at his trainer's command.

Katherine was fuming. Jeremy refused to come out of his little daydream, or whatever it was, and Katherine got the feeling that he was simply trying to be unhelpful for some reason. This caused her to nearly be thrown over Arcanine's head as he braked suddenly, short claws digging into the ground. Katherine grabbed his luxurious white mane reflexively. Jeremy, who had not been paying attention either, maintained hold of Katherine's sweatshirt by only a single hind paw. Katherine straightened up angrily, peering over Arcanine's head to see what had made him stop without warning.

A trainer had run out, nearly in front of the Arcanine, and was now eagerly making his way around to Katherine's side. "Hi!" he called cheerfully, waving as though he had just done something incredibly clever.

Kathering glared at him with distaste. He wore a red windbreaker with a white stripe running down each sleeve and similar pants. A cooltrainer, she thought, and a rather dumb one at that. He had red hair to match his attire and green eyes. "What are you, stupid?" she snapped at him. "Only an idiot would try to run out in front of an Arcanine running full tilt." Although he had acted rashly, he was apparently a competent trainer, his jacket displaying five badges, only one less than the six that Katherine had pinned on her pack.

"Oh, I knew he wouldn't hit me," the trainer said dismissively, waving a hand. "You've obviously trained him very well. So, what about a battle? You're the first decent-looking trainer that I've seen come through these parts."

Katherine ignored the flattery as she considered the matter. Jeremy had successfully clambered back onto her shoulder and was now hissing wordlessly in her ear, clearly against the idea. Katherine was still annoyed with him, however, and hadn't had a good battle in a while. It wouldn't take very long, anyway. "All right," she replied grudgingly.

"Great!" the cooltrainer cried enthusiastically. "How's a four-on-four sound to you?"

Katherine slid off of Arcanine's back and returned him to his Pokeball. Her trainer's intuition was already trying to assess the battle and size up the opponent before the battle even started. "That would be fine," she decided. The cooltrainer must have at least decent Pokemon, as he was willing to challenge her even after seeing her Arcanine, a very powerful specimen. Most of the trainers who had looked up eagerly at the sight of the approaching beast got a good look at it and then hastily returned their eyes to the sea of tall grass around them.

The trainer nodded and backed up, while Katherine moved off in the opposite direction. "I'm James, by the way," he said, a little belatedly.

"Katherine," Katherine replied curtly, continuing to walk away from him. When they were a good distance apart, they turned to face one another again, and the battle began.

"Go, Charizard!" James cried, throwing out Pokeball. It disgorged a large red dragon-like Pokemon.

"Zaarrrrrrrrrrrrrdd! Charizard!" it roared, and the flame on its tail roared higher as it anticipated the battle.

After a brief moment of decision, Katherine grabbed a Pokeball off of her belt and threw it ontot he battlefield. "Let's do this, Electabuzz!" she yelled, and her ball opened to release the yellow and black electric Pokemon onto the field.

"Buzzzzzzzzzz!" she howled, and electricity began to spark between the nodes that rose out of her head.

James didn't hesitate to issue commands. "Get out of there with Fly!" he ordered. His Charizard spread its blue wings and beat them forcefully, slowly rising into the air. He wasn't nearly as fast or as maneuverable as Katherine's Pidgeot, due to his greater bulk relative to his wingspan, but he could still avoid many attacks while he was in the air. Katherine had to strike before he flew out of Electabuzz's range.

"Electabuzz, let's keep this fight down to earth! Use Thunder Wave!" she ordered.

The electricity coursing between Electabuzz's nodes intensified to a steady stream. She closed her eyes and concentrated, releasing a nearly invisible blast of electricity at the Charizard. Distinguishable only by a rippling distortion in the air, the attack struck the Charizard dead on and began to wreak havoc with his nervous system. His wings began to jerk and twitch spasmodically, then locked up all together, sending the fire-type crashing back to the ground.

"Hit him with a Thunderbolt!" Katherine yelled to her fighter, who began to prepare for the attack. She concentrated once again, and electricity began rippling across her yellow and black fur, coalescing as it reached the nodes on her head.

"Quick, Charizard, use Flamethrower!" James cried desperately. Though experiencing great difficulty moving as a result of Electabuzz's initial assault, the Charizard had managed to rise again and opened his jaws.

Electabuzz unleashed her attack, sending a powerful blast of electrical energy straight at the Charizard. He was unable to dodge and was enveloped by the attack, but not before firing a shot of his own. A steady torrent of fire gushed from his mouth, reaching across the arena towards Electabuzz. Normally, the speedy electric-type would have been able to dodge out of the way, but she had been concentrating on her own attack and wasn't able to dodge. Fortunately, Charizard's paralysis prevented him from aiming his attack properly and it only grazed Electabuzz's side. Still, it charred a swath of the electric-type's fur and crisped the skin beneath, eliciting an angry bellow from the Pokemon.

James's Charizard succumbed to the electrical blast, slumping over, extremities still twitching uncontrollably.

"Return, Charizard!" James said with disappointment at seeing his Pokemon so quickly done away with. "Go, Parasect!"

The Pokeball that he threw opened to reveal a large, insectoid Pokemon with a massive mushroom growing from its back. Its two eyes were a milky white and sightless.

"Sctsctsct! Parasect!" It chattered, clacking the massive orange pincers on its forelimbs.

Katherine smiled inwardly at the sight. She had been hoping that her opponent would make a choice like that, sending out a grass-type, which was resistant to electricity.

"You can take one more, can't you, Electabuzz?" she asked her fighter.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz! Buzzzzzz!" Her Electabuzz snarled, enraged.

"Alright then, send this bug packing with Fire Punch!" Katherine called out gleefully. Electabuzz dashed towards the opponent, holding her right fist high. Sparks crawled across it, igniting into small gouts of fire that encased the Pokemon's fist.

Katherine's opponent gaped for a second at the unexpected attack, then cried, "Slash, Parasect!"

The mushroom creature lashed out with one of its foreclaws, opening a bleeding gash in Electabuzz's chest. Electabuzz kept on coming, slamming her blazing fist into the creature's mushroom to the right of its eyes.

The Pokemon hissed and chattered in pain, its legs lashing out convulsively, cutting Electabuzz in several places and driving her back. The electric-type's attack had eaten a huge chunk out of the Pokemon's mushroom.

Katherine saw that Electabuzz was tiring quickly, blood oozing from the nasty cuts that crisscrossed her pelt, but hoped that the Pokemon had one last good attack left in her. "Hit it again with Fire Punch!" she ordered, and Electabuzz sprang to obey.

"Spore!" James yelled.

The Parasect began to spew a faintly green cloud of spores into the air from the underside of its large mushroom.

Though Electabuzz bravely pressed through them, fist ablaze yet again, her eyes began to droop and her steps faltered as the attack began to take effect. She lashed out at the Parasect, but only scored a graze across its side as her lunge degenerated into a slump as she fell to the ground, asleep.

"Return, Electabuzz!" Katherine cried hurriedly, seeing the Parasect about to pounce on the defenseless Electabuzz.

The bug- and grass-type Pokemon would be weak to her Pidgeot's arsenal as well. She unclipped the Pokeball from her belt and threw it out, calling "Go Pidgeot!"

The large brown bird hopped dutifully from his Pokeball and shrieked at the Parasect. "Pidgeoooooooooooooooooott!"

"Parasect, use Spore again!" James commanded his Pokemon, hoping to repeat Katerine's performance and hit her flying-type before it could fly out of range.

Katherine's Pidgeot was far faster than his Charizard, however, and darted out of the way of the spore cloud as Katherine cried, "Pidgeot, Fly!"

Pidgeot complied, soaring up and away to hover over the Parasect's head. The opponent ordered Parasect to try to hit it again with another Spore blast, but the sightless Pokemon could not even attempt to aim at Pidgeot and the attack proved useless. Pidgeot dived, talons open, to hit the Parasect squarely at the top of its mushroom. The bug was knocked to the ground, crablike legs clawing the air frantically as it tried to regain its balance. Pidgeot darted up and away again as the creature managed to right itself.

Its strength was nearly spent, spindly legs shaking as they tried to support the weight of the massive mushroom. Katherine ordered Pidgeot to dive again, and James gave his Parasect its last order.

"Aerial Ace!" he shouted.

Pidgeot was unable to change course quickly enough to avoid the raking foreclaw of the Parasect as he dived to assault it again. It connected, knocking him off course and sending feathers flying. He still managed to rake his talons across the bug's mushroom, however, and it collapsed beneath his assault.

"Return, Parasect!" the trainer cried.

Katherine awaited his next move warily. He wasn't half-bad. It was then that she noticed that all was not well with Pidgeot. He had landed on her side of the arena again, but he was slumped over and panting heavily. He had barely taken any damage at all, so such an action was worrying. She quickly grabbed her Pokedex from her belt, flipped it open, and told it to analyze his condition.

"Subject has been poisoned," it droned informatively.

Of course. Katherine had forgotten about Parasect's ability, Effect Spore, which was triggered by physical contact. Pidgeot's Fly attack must have allowed some of the Poisonous spores from Parasect's mushroom to get into his wound. It looked like no matter what the cooltrainer used next she'd be switching Pokemon.

"Go, Sneasel!" James said, throwing his next Pokemon into the fray. The Pokeball opened to release a sly-looking black Pokemon. Humanoid in form, it had a strange red growth protruding from one side of its head and a row of red feather-like formations growing from its back.

"Snixxxx!" it hissed.

"Return, Pidgeot," Katherine commanded, throwing down her next Pokeball almost before Pidgeot had been completely returned to safety. "Go, Heracross!"

Her Pokeball released a stocky blue Pokemon, a beetle-like creature with a single pronged horn growing from his forehead.

"Crrroosss!" He crowed excitedly, tossing his horned head proudly.

The Sneasel eyed its opponent coolly, then nonchalantly popped her claws out. Even after numerous battles against Sneasels, Katherine still couldn't understand how such small, innocent black paws could conceal such wicked claws. Each paw was adorned with two wicked claws that were nearly a foot long.

"Slash, Sneasel!" James yelled.

"Counter!" Katherine yelled hurriedly. Heracross braced himself for the attack, bringing his own, shorter claws up into a ready position.

The lightning-fast Sneasel darted up to Heracross and lashed his chest with one of her long claws. Heracross bore the attack unflinchingly, then allowed his opponent's own attack to work against her. While she was still unbalanced from her powerful strike, he lashed out with his own claws, clouting her a hefty blow that sent her rolling head over tail back towards her trainer. She was already looking badly beaten up when she dragged herself to her feet, covered with bruises.

"Icy Wind!" James tried, seeing that physical attacks probably weren't wise.

"Brick Break, Heracross," Katherine said triumphantly, knowing that this round was won. Heracross charged as the Sneasel began to prepare her attack.

The Sneasel blew a fierce blast of cold air and ice particles at Heracross, which encrusted his carapace. It didn't do much damage, but the freezing blast did slow him down a bit. He kept on coming. The Sneasel tried to use her superior speed and agility to dodge away from him, but she was tired and he caught her easily. Heracross delivered three crushing blows to her torso and she was down for the count.

James was down to his last Pokemon, and Katherine still had her Heracross and either her Donphan, Muk, or Arcanine to back her up.

James had apparently saved the best for last, however. "Go, Nidoking!" he commanded, throwing down his last Pokemon.

The beast that emerged from the Pokeball was a massive, bulky purple creature. Heavily armored, it stood on two stocky hind legs. His thick, articulate tail slammed into the ground, sending tremors through it. His back was adorned with huge purple spikes, and his face bore a single purple horn.

"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" he roared.

Heracross looked uncertainly across at the Nidoking, who was clearly very powerful.

"Earthquake!" James commanded, grinning. The Nidoking stomped heavily on the ground, his massive bulk sending tremors through it. The ground trembled and rocked, forcing the Nidoking's own trainer to retreat or be caught in the attack.

"Endure!" Katherine ordered in the face of the massively powerful ground attack.

Heracross closed his eyes and concentrated, standing solidly despite the violently trembling earth that threatened to knock him over. When the attack ended, he was clearly very tired, but still standing.

"Reversal!" Katherine ordered, and Heracross darted forward. Though by no means graceful, he was still faster than the hulking Nidoking.

The blows that he dealt to his opponent were filled with all of the pain that he had endured during the battle, and the power behind the attack knocked even the mighty Nidoking back a few paces. The huge Pokemon recovered quickly, however, and responded to his trainer's command.

"Mega Punch!" James called. The Nidoking threw all of his considerable bulk into the attack, and it connected with Heracross with a crunch as the bug-type's carapace cracked under the assault.

"Heracross, good fight! Return!" Katherine yelled to her fallen fighter, sending him back to the safety of his Pokeball. She then selected and released her last fighter.

"Donphan, go!"

Her compact elephant-like Pokemon entered the fray with a loud "Don! Donphan!"

"Hyper Beam, Nidoking!" James ordered.

Nidoking opened his fanged mouth and a blinding white ball of energy began to collect there, slowly expanding.

"Donphan, Protect!" Katherine ordered, knowing that if the mega-attack connected it would most likely knock out her fighter.

Donphan curled into a tight ball, his rocky back the only part of his body exposed. A shimmering bubble appeared around him.

The Nidoking released his attack. The huge beam of light caused Katherine to throw an arm up to protect her eyes. There was a loud roar as the bolt of pure energy struck Donphan's shield and ricocheted off, sending minor blasts off in all directions. They gouged furrows in the ground and one even glanced off at an angle that caused it to scythe through the long grass to the right, nearly decapitating a curious junior trainer who had been watching the fight. He scurried away, and the bolt of energy dissipated soon after.

Donphan, unscathed, uncurled himself and returned to his fighting stance.

The Nidoking was drained of energy, slumped over on his side of the makeshift arena. He wouldn't be immobilized for long, though, and Katherine would have to attack it while she had the chance. "Earthquake, Donphan!" She cried.

Donphan brought his forelegs down on the soil, once again stirring it up. Nidoking couldn't keep his balance and was thrown to the ground, where he struggled to get up but failed, bounced along the ground like a rag doll as the soil bucked and heaved. When the attack was complete, he was still unable to rise, although he gave a last defiant roar before the James grudgingly recalled him.

"Looks like you won," he said sheepishly. "You really are good."

"You're not bad yourself," Katherine admitted grudgingly, accepting the money that he offered her and stuffing it into her pack without looking at it.

James walked off towards the Ilex Forest, and Katherine sent out her Arcanine again. Pidgeot's poison condition was steadily worsening and she would need to get him medical attention soon. Fortunately, they were close to Goldenrod's Pokemon Center.

"Arrrrr..." Arcanine sighed as Katherine clambered up onto his back. He was disappointed at not being allowed to battle.

Katherine patted his broad back as he turned around to face Goldenrod. "I know, I know. I just didn't want to send you out against that Nidoking, that's all. If you had gotten hurt, then I'd be without a ride, wouldn't I?"

Arcanine nodded slowly, then set off at his ground-eating pace once more.

"You battle very well," a small voice said, nearly in her ear.

For the third time that day, Katherine nearly fell from her mount. Regaining her balance she inwardly reprimanded herself for having forgotten about Jeremy, who was still riding on her shoulder. He had been completely silent throughout the entire battle.

She turned her head so that she could get a glimpse of Jeremy out of one eye. He was grinning at her, having noticed her slip. Apparently, he was out of his little trance and feeling much perkier. "Yeah, I know," she agreed. "Feeling a little more talkative now, are we?" She tried to keep the edge of annoyance out of her voice, but Jeremy's ears twitched as he listened and he gave her an exasperated look.

"I wasn't about to talk in front of that trainer, you know. Do you _want_ to get me kidnapped by Team Rocket or something? Because I'm sure they'll be interested in any talking Pokemon, even if it's just a Rattata."

"You talk to me," Katherine pointed out. "How do you know that I'm not just taking you to my boss to turn you in?"

"Oh, you're not their type," Jeremy said absentmindedly, grooming his white chest fur.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Katherine asked coldly, her eyes narrowing.

Looking up from his fur, the Rattata realized that he had made a diplomatic error. "Oh, I just meant that you seem, um, really nice, and stuff. Listen, you wanted to know about me, right?" he asked, hastily changing the subject.

"If you're not about to zone out on me again, sure. I'm looking forward to a few answers."

Jeremy nodded solemnly and launched into his tale without introduction, talking quickly as though he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. "I was a trainer like you, once. Always looking for adventure and new places. I had conquered the gym leaders of the Johto region and was honing my team in preparation for the final League match. I happened to stumble upon that little island as I surfed across the ocean. Naturally, I made landfall and set out to explore the forest. From the instant I entered the trees I knew that something was wrong. A funny feeling passed over me as the tree's shade enveloped me. I didn't think much of it, though, and pressed deeper into the woods. I was jumped by a Ninetales, which I at first thought to be an extreme stroke of luck. I mean, who's ever heard of a wild Ninetales before? I was all prepared to catch it, Ultra Ball in hand, when I happened to look into its eyes." Jeremy stopped and shivered, the fur on his back bristling. Katherine, who was trying to keep up with his lightning-fast narrative, attempted to consolidate her thoughts, but Jeremy shook himself and moved on again, skimming over events as though they were hot coals. "They burned horribly, with a sort of inner fire. It's hard to describe. I felt pulled into them, thinking that I saw images dancing in the flames. In a moment, it seemed I was falling into them, and I saw what the pictures were. They formed a scene wreathed in fire, a helpless Rattata running for its life from the flames. And then I was the one in the fire, running as it closed in on me. I wasn't fast enough, though, and it caught up to me. Before I knew it, I was ablaze, my former self burning away. I grew smaller and smaller, shrinking to the size of a Rattata. It was horribly painful, as though I had been consumed by ice-cold tongues of flame. I tried to cry for help, for all the good that it would have done me, but all that came out was a sort of wordless squeak. In the end, I could take it no more, and I gave in to the flames." Jeremy was stopped by a sudden jolt as Arcanine's great paws hit cobblestones instead of dirt. They had entered Goldenrod City.


	9. The Plan

Author's Notes: Thanks once again from the reviews. I'm glad you liked the battle, Keleri. I'm glad that I did it well. Could you be more specific about errors, PNEK MEKS? I would be happy to remedy them, but I don't know where they are.

The next few chapters may not be put up at my usual rate, as I will have restricted access to the computer for a little while.

Chapter Nine: The Plan 

A stray beam of midafternoon sunlight came slanting lazily through the forest's canopy, meandering around tree limbs and birds' nests until it struck the face of a slumbering Spearow. He shifted somewhat in his sleep, uttering small murmurs and shoving his face farther behind his left wing without awakening.

Though the sunbeam didn't bother the sleeping Pokemon, the visitor that arrived at almost exactly the same time did. An Ekans coiled its way out of a nearby Oran berry bush, slithering out onto the scruffy patch of grass that surrounded the Spearow's tree. Craning his neck up, he searched the tree's upper branches until he located the Spearow, a black lump clutching a high-up limb. The Ekans flicked his tongue out in annoyance as he saw that the bird Pokemon was asleep.

"Wake up, Seth," he hissed loudly. There was no response.

"Wake _up_, Seth," the Ekans tried, this time louder. The Spearow stirred, grumbling, and pulled his head out from beneath his wing, opening his eyes.

They were immediately assaulted by the errant sunbeam, causing him to squint them with a curse. Seth shifted his weight around on the branch, turning his body to face down towards the Ekans. "What the hell'd you wake me up for, Trevor?" he snarled.

The Ekans didn't bat an eye and replied coolly, "Urgent news, Seth. Not even you would want to sleep through it. The others are coming."

"Yeah, sure. There's always something urgent right in the middle of my afternoon nap, isn't there?" the Spearow growled, then irritably turned his attention to preening himself. His feathers were terribly scraggly and disheveled, and Seth's short beak only seemed to be pulling and prodding them into further disarray. Trevor patiently curled himself into a spiral and settled down to wait.

Soon enough, there was a rustling in the Oran bush and a Togepi waddled out of it. She awkwardly swiveled her cumbersome body around to take in the scene. "Good afternoon Trevor, Seth," she chirped politely.

Trevor greeted her with a nod and Seth looked up from his now thoroughly entangled chest feathers long enough to give her a "'Sup, Jess." The Togepi trundled over to Trevor, once tripping over a twig but rolling back onto her feet and continuing cheerfully enough. She eventually sat down next to Trevor, leaning up against the trunk of Seth's tree.

The final two expected parties showed up together, pushing their way through the Oran bush side by side. One was a Houndour, eyes squinted against the bright midafternoon sunshine streaming through the forest's canopy, and the other a Nincada who skittered along, faceted eyes winking in the light and throwing distorted images of the world back to the observers. "Hello Satoran! Hi Malkendro!" Jess trilled happily.

"'Bout time," Seth observed caustically.

"Greetings, friends," the Nincada chirred as he reached the tree and took the spot next to Jess.

The Houndour forewent any greeting and plopped down next to Trevor without a word. The four turned their eyes up to Seth, who was still sitting on his tree branch. "We're waiting on you, Seth" Trevor explained with a hint of annoyance.

"Yeah, whatever," Seth replied, but he opened his stubby wings and leapt off of the tree branch. He made an awkward descent, flapping madly, and landed hard between the Houndour and the Nincada. "There. Now we're all cozy," Seth observed. "Why don't you be so kind as to inform us as to why we're all here, oh great leader?" he sneered at Trevor.

"I called a meeting because I received very important news from Allekendro late this morning. I thought it necessary for us to convene immediately to discuss it," Trevor explained.

"Likes his fancy words, doesn't he?" Seth observed in a cutting whisper.

Trevor continued speaking, unperturbed. "Allekendro told me that this very morning Jeremy escaped the forest."

This statement was enough to silence even the surly Seth. The four Pokemon were stunned and could only stare at Trevor at disbelief until Seth rediscovered his voice. "Yer pullin' my tailfeathers," he chortled. "That little rat? Come on, you gotta be jokin'."

"Yes, how did this come to be?" the Nincada buzzed incredulously.

Trevor looked around at his skeptical comrades as he spoke, noting their reactions to his words. "Early this morning, Jeremy made an attempt to escape into the meadow. Naturally, the Persian Nishivma, who stands guard over that area, caught him before he could go more than a yard and chased him back into the forest once more. Jeremy then set out for a walk through the forest, as is his custom. Nishivma followed, being suspicious of his intentions and thinking that he might try to escape once more. In a stroke of luck, a Pidgeot-riding trainer landed on the beach as Jeremy was passing near to it. Seeing her to be a very competent trainer, Nishivma slunk away to hide deeper in the forest, where she thought that she would be out of danger. Jeremy saw his chance and ran out at the trainer to try to distract her and prevent her from entering the trees. Seeing her mistake and not having the courage to deal with the situation herself, Nishivma ran to the Mistress for help, telling her of Jeremy's actions. Naturally, the Mistress was furious, and she set out to remedy the situation herself. She arrived too late however; the trainer had departed the island, Jeremy with her. That is all that I know."

The Houndour spoke for the first time since his arrival. "What proof do you have of this? Allekendro is not the most trustworthy of informers."

"I trust him this time, Malkendro," Trevor replied. "Allekendro may be a trickster, but he was extremely excited as he told me the news. He seemed hardly able to believe it himself. I have not seen nor heard from Jeremy all day, despite the fact that he normally passes near my lair on his way to the stream. And what would Allekendro gain from misleading us?"

"A great big laugh, that's what," Seth replied acidly. There followed a heated debate between the members of the circle as to the credibility of the story. Seth and Malkendro strongly opposed trusting the information, and Jess and Trevor argued in favor of Allekendro's trustworthiness. The wise Nincada, Satoran, sat quietly and considered the issue.

Once the debate had died down, he spoke in his soft, hissing voice, "I believe that Allekendro spoke truly. Cunning and slippery though he may be, he is, in the end, working towards the same goals that we are."

"I still don't trust 'im." Seth snarled, though he did so with less conviction than before.

"Fortunately, the credibility of Allekendro's tale is easy to ascertain. We must simply seek Jeremy out at his nest. If he does not return there after several hours, we can be almost assured that he has managed to depart. That confirmed, we may assume that the rest of the story is also true. We may then take action accordingly," Satoran finished, completely unfazed by Seth's usual interruption.

"But exactly what should we do?" Jess piped up.

The group fell silent again, deep in thought.

"I think that Jeremy was on to something," Trevor said finally. "If what Allekendro said is true, he tried this morning to escape into the meadow." He didn't need to describe the meadow in any way; the other listeners knew exactly what he was talking about. "It might hold the key to our freedom. After all, it is the one place on the island where the Mistress' power does not extend. If we can find out why, then perhaps we can eliminate the curse altogether."

"How can we find out, though?" Jess asked uncertainly. "We're watched constantly. Jeremy was lucky; we may not be. Investigating the meadow properly could take months, or even years. We don't have that kind of time."

"Why not?" asked Malkendro. "So far as I can tell, we have all the time in the world. We've been under the Mistress' spell long enough; why should anything change?"

"Because it is different now," Jess explained. "One of the Cursed has escaped, something that hasn't happened in the over ten years that the Mistress has been ruler of this island. She's sure to take some sort of precaution to ensure that it doesn't happen again, and she'll be looking for ways to recapture and punish Jeremy, as well. We have to try to act fast and see if we can somehow distract her from the chase and give Jeremy time to inform the world of our plight."

"And how exactly do you propose to do that?" Malkendro pressed.

"I don't know," Jess replied irritably. "That's why I asked."

"We should first confirm Allekendro's story," Satoran reminded the group. "After that, I suggest that someone keep watch over the Mistress'. Perhaps if we can discover her plans for recapturing Jeremy we can prevent her from implementing them. Finally, I suggest that we ask Delriaron for council in the matter of the meadow. He may be able to point us to the source of its strange powers, or at least tell us more about it."

"Delrairon?" Seth scoffed. "You ask that phony for the time of day and all you get is some load of bull about how time has no meaning. Ask him about the meadow and we'll be trying to puzzle out what he said for months."

"Delrairon may be somewhat unhelpful, yes," Trevor agreed, "But his council is better than none. He is very wise, though he veils his wisdom in smoke and mirrors."

"Which makes him wiser than ever," Satoran pointed out gently. "If the Mistress were to discover how much he really knows, she would never allow him the freedom that he currently has. As it is, she finds him amusing, and guards him little."

"It's settled, then," Malkendro growled, growing tired of the conversation. "I shall search for Jeremy."

"I'll watch the Mistress," volunteered Trevor. "I can move more silently than any of you."

"And I shall speak with Delrairon," Satoran added. "He knows me well. He may tell that which he might not so willingly tell you."

"What about me?" Seth yelled, not really wanting to do any work but certainly not wanting to be left out.

"You can go back to your nap," Trevor replied. "We'll meet back here at the same time tomorrow. Then we can see what information we've gathered and maybe start to formulate a real plan."

"Let us hope that our search is successful," Satoran chirred softly. "Farewell, my friends." He turned and began to scuttle back towards the bushes.

"I think that I may go and talk to Allekendro," Jess mused. "I know that it's not part of the plan, but I am interested in listening to his story again and seeing if it matches up with the account that you gave us, Trevor. Maybe it's true in that Jeremy escaped, but I have a feeling that he may have embellished the details a bit. Goodbye, everyone." Jess stood up in the awkward manner of Togepis and trundled away.

Malkendro left as he had come; without a word or any warning. Trevor was the last to leave. He turned to Seth. "You _will _be here tomorrow, correct?" he asked warningly.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Seth grumbled. "It's not like I've got anythin' else to do." He watched gravely as the Ekans slithered back the way he had come. He flapped awkwardly back up to his perch and resumed preening. He mumbled pensively to himself as he proceeded to further muddle his feathers, not really paying attention to what he was doing. "I don't like it," he observed. "Something doesn't smell right here. Over a decade and no one escapes, only to have someone make it out now? It just doesn't make sense."


	10. The City

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reviewing! I discovered today that I forgot to uncheck the box that says "don't accept anonymous reviews". I of course remedied the situation, so I may now accept reviews from any source, signed or otherwise.

PNEK MEKS, you can get my email address from the link on my profile; it's not blocked. As for why I chose LG over FR, green is my favorite color, and the game cartridge is very close to my favorite shade as well.

Finally, you'll notice in this chapter that I don't use Nurse Joy as the nurse in the Goldenrod Pokemon Center. I've always thought it rather impossible for only a single individual to oversee the operations of an entire Pokemon Center, Chansey assistants or no. I also find it strange and somewhat disturbing to think that all of said nurses should look and act exactly the same. Therefore, although Nurse Joy exists in my fanfic, she does not play such a major role in the running of the various Pokemon Centers across Johto.

Chapter 10: The City

Arcanine's long strides shortened as he slowed down to a walking pace. The streets of Goldenrod were too crowded to allow him to run freely. Trainers and civilians alike bustled in and out of the stores and skyscrapers lining the cobblestone streets. Here and there crowds had gathered to watch one of the many Pokemon battles that flared up inside of the city. Magikarp salesmen lurked on street corners, pouncing on unsuspecting passers by and trying to bully them into buying one of the incredibly weak fish Pokemon. The crowds were making Katherine nervous. While the relatively open Route 34 and Ilex forest were sparsely traveled, Goldenrod's bustling downtown was chronically congested. While no one would find it unusual to see a trainer talking to one of her Pokemon, they would take immediate interest in one that began talking back. "We'll finish this conversation later," Katherine told Jeremy firmly. "It's too crowded here. Someone might over hear you."

Jeremy nodded. Katherine guessed that he was probably happy to get off of the subject anyway. She, however, still had many questions for him. Annoyed by giving him an excuse to clam up again, she leaned forward to instruct Arcanine. "Make for the Pokemon Center, okay, Arcanine?" Katherine asked him. He obligingly changed course, angling left.

That dealt with, Katherine turned her attention to the sights and sounds of Goldenrod. The largest city in Johto, its winding streets held surprises around every turn. Tall buildings stood proudly over the streets, a testament to the city's booming economy. Katherine's ears caught a far-off rumbling roar as the Goldenrod-Saffron train barreled into the station at the north end of town. She could recall the awe and wonder that the city had evoked in her when she first entered it several months ago. Her native town, Ecruteak, which had seemed so large and amazing to her before she left on her journey, dwindled to a small and rather boring place compared to the constantly moving Goldenrod. The Pokemon Center, built the same as every other one in the region, seemed too small and common to belong to the marvelous city. It was crammed between two towering skyscrapers, appearing small and dejected in comparison.

Arcanine halted, and Katherine slid off of his back. "Take a rest, Arcanine," she said, holding out his Pokeball. He dissolved into a cloud of red energy that was vacuumed up by the Pokeball, which Katherine then returned to her belt.

A battle had begun outside of the Pokemon center. The trainers were enthusiastically yelling orders to a Granbull and a Bayleef who were ferociously trading blows. Ordinarily, Katherine would have stopped to watch, but she was mindful of Pidgeot's condition and instead pushed her way through the crowd that had gathered to watch and that was blocking the Pokemon Center's doors. As she approached them, the doors slid back with a cheery "ding!"

The young nurse behind the counter smiled as Katherine approached. Her hair was an odd shade of brown-red that Katherine couldn't recall having seen before and very dark eyes, nearly black. Her pierced nose and eyebrows seemed to clash with the white apron that she wore and the small white hat with a red cross on it that perched atop her head.

"Four Pokemon to be healed," Katherine told her. "One asleep, one poisoned, one knocked out, and one that just needs a rest."

"This will just be a few minutes," the nurse informed Katherine as she accepted the Pokeballs. "Please have a seat."

Katherine obligingly walked over to the Center's expansive waiting area. She plopped down on one of the comfortable couches and took a look at the people around her.

The Pokemon Center, was, naturally, very busy. A pair of trainers was having lunch at a small table over to the left. A trainer on the couch to her right had apparently dozed off, his head lolling against the back of his sofa and his mouth hanging slightly open. The pair that Katherine had just seen battling outside the center hurried in to heal their Pokemon. A multitude of trainers milled about the waiting area, pacing nervously or running over to greet old friends. Katherine sighed and sat quietly, twiddling her thumbs.

After what seemed an eternity, the nurse behind the counter rang the bell and called out, "ID 766502, your Pokemon have been healed." Katherine hurriedly went over to accept her Pokemon before once more stepping out onto the busy street outside.

She looked about for a minute to try to get her bearings. It had been several months since she had last been in the city, and its numerous streets and unhelpful signs made navigation difficult. At least she knew that Mark's mother lived near the train track; she hoped that once she saw the house she would recognize it.

After about an hour of searching, Katherine finally found what she was looking for. Mark's house was nearly identical to the ones on either side, being small and rather squarish with a red roof and flower boxes hanging below the windows. Katherine stepped up to the door and rang the doorbell.

It was opened by a short woman, Mark's mother. She had blonde, curly hair and pale blue eyes. Despite her size, Katherine knew that she had a strong spirit. She had been a trainer herself in her younger years.

"Why, if it isn't Katherine!" Mark's mother exclaimed. "It's been ages! Please, come in, come in." She stood aside and gestured into the house's interior. In no time at all, Ms. Leafbaum, Mark's mother, soon had Katherine seated in the living room with a Squirtle Soda in her hand. The house's interior was cozy, with comfortable furniture and all manner of Johto League paraphernalia. Over the fireplace in the living room's west wall hung a portrait of Mark's mother and her prized Pokemon, a Rapidash.

"So, what brings you back this way?" Mark's mother asked, taking a seat opposite Katherine.

"I'm looking for Mark, actually," Katherine answered. "I wanted to see my old Vulpix again and show him the Arcanine that he gave me."

Mark's mother nodded. "Ah, yes, I remember that trade. Mark was so excited when he brought that Vulpix home for the first time. His license doesn't allow him to capture wild ones, of course, so he was happy to have gotten one at last."

Katherine smiled to herself. She had been quite pleased with the trade also. She had always liked Arcanine better than Ninetales, and had been disappointed to learn that her license didn't allow her to capture them. "Do you know where I can find him?" she asked.

"You're in luck, actually," Ms. Leafbaum said with a smile. "Mark should be here tomorrow. He's on his way to the Johto League headquarters so that he can participate in the big closing tournament for this season. He said that he would stop by. If you plan to meet him, you can spend the night."

"Oh, that's okay. I wouldn't want to be a burden," Katherine replied.

"Nonsense!" Ms. Leafbaum chuckled. "I don't get many visitors around here, and the guest bedroom could stand to be put to use. It would be my pleasure to have you."

"Sure, that would be great," Katherine said, truly enthusiastic. While she enjoyed the "roughing it" atmosphere of training and had no problem with sleeping out under the stars, it would be a treat to be staying in a nice bed. She also felt slightly sorry for Ms. Leafbaum. Mark's parents were divorced, and with Mark gone on off on his Pokemon journey, his mother was left all alone at her home.

"Tell you what," Mark's mother said, "Why don't you take a little time and have a look around the city? I'm sure that you'll find something interesting out there, and it'll give me a chance to get the bedroom all made up. Just be sure to be back by six for dinner."

Katherine nodded. "Thanks, that would be great." Mark's mother shooed her out of the door and, before she knew it, Katherine was once again standing on the streets of Goldenrod City with three hours before she needed to return to Mark's house.

She had a lot to mull over as she wandered, however. So Mark was on his way to seek the title of Johto League Champion, was he? Katherine felt a twinge of jealousy, though she hastily squashed it. It was her dream, as was it the dream of many other trainers, to obtain such fame and notoriety. She had chosen a different route than Mark, however, and was focusing more on exploring and training her Pokemon than she was on making a straight shot for the championship. She knew that she could probably take on the competition, but something inside of her seemed to hold her back. She was reluctant, as though if she really did become champion, she would never have anything in her life to dream about again.

She glanced at Jeremy to see if she could discern his thoughts. They weren't hard to read. He was staring at the Radio Tower in unabashed awe.

At first this puzzled Katherine. Sure, the tower was impressive, but it was certainly no grander than any of the other buildings in the city. Then she realized what it was. He hadn't been in Goldenrod in at least ten years; it must certainly look different than it had before. The new Radio Tower was one of the most grandiose additions of the recent past, but there were many others.

"Looks a bit different around here, doesn't it?" she asked him. He nodded slowly. "Let's see the sights, then."

Katherine used the remaining hours of the afternoon to give Jeremy a thorough tour of the city. She showed him the new train, a miraculous innovation made possible through the study of the electromagnetic fields generated by Magnetons. The pair browsed through the dizzying array of merchandise in the Goldenrod Department store and gazed up at the enormous Radio Tower. They even stopped in at the game corner and tried the slots. Katherine didn't win anything, but she had fun all the same.

When the pair returned to Mark's house at nearly six, they were once again ushered in by his mother. She led them promptly into the kitchen from which drifted wonderful smells. Jeremy and Kathrine gazed in wonder at the spread of food set out on the table.

Ms. Leafbaum had certainly outdone herself. The modest kitchen table was groaning underneath the weight of a huge bowl of spaghetti and a nearby pan holding Ms. Leafbaum's own homemade sauce. The rest of the table was taken up by a long loaf of bread and a massive bowl of salad. "I know that it's a bit much," Ms. Leafbaum said sheepishly, "but I don't have guests by often. I guess I just got a little carried away."

"That's okay," Katherine said enthusiastically. She noticed that Ms. Leafbaum had set a bread plate off to the side of Katherine's plate. At first she couldn't figure out what it could be for, but when Jeremy leapt off of her shoulder and on to the table, she realized that it had been set for him.

Noticing this, Ms. Leafbaum smiled and explained, "I don't mind having Pokemon at the table, provided that they behave themselves." She looked pointedly at Jeremy, who stared up at her with wide, innocent eyes.

Katherine and Ms. Leafbaum sat down to eat. For the first few minutes there was no conversation as the three diners concentrated entirely on the delicious food that was laid out before him. Jeremy wasn't able to get any food for himself, being too small to wield the serving utensils, so Katherine found herself constantly refilling his plate. He was able to eat an amazing amount of food for such a small Pokemon. Watching him enjoy his meal, Katherine felt slightly guilty, knowing that the rest of her Pokemon were missing out. They weren't hungry, however; a Pokemon's body consumes almost no energy at all during the period when it is inside its Pokeball, so they usually need to be fed only a modest meal once a day. Her Pokemon would still be satisfied after their lunch and might make themselves sick if they tried to tackle such a large dinner.

As the meal began to wind down, Ms. Leafbaum and Katherine struck up a conversation. Ms. Leafbaum asked how Katherine's training journey was going, and Katherine was more than willing to recount her recent exploits. She gladly spoke about her battle with Jasmine and how her Heracross had single-handedly defeated Jasmine's massive Steelix. The pair talked for quite some time. Ms. Leafbaum was an excellent audience. Having been a trainer herself, she understood what Katherine was describing and was always willing to offer congratulations on superb battling or advice to help with difficult opponents. When it seemed that all had had their fill of dinner and talk, Ms. Leafbaum set about cleaning up, clearing away dishes and bowls. "The guest room is just down the hall there, dear," she told Katherine. "Second door on the right."

Katherine stood and waited for a reluctant Jeremy to polish off his last piece of bread and hop back onto her shoulder before walking off down the hall to her room. It was small and simple, the bed occupying most of the space. There was a window on the right wall that looked out to the house's back yard, which was small and flanked on all sides by buildings. The first stars were just beginning to appear, struggling to make their radiance seen over the artificial light cast by the numerous streetlights, neon signs and lit windows that filled the city. The moon was nearly full, casting a pallid glow over the outside world.

Katherine sighed and set her pack down, slumping gratefully onto the bed. Jeremy bounded off of her shoulder and over to the windowsill. He sat looking out of it wistfully. "So much has changed," he sighed, shaking his head. "It's as though I've come back to find that a whole new world has come and taken the place of my old one. That building, there," he said, pointing to a soaring skyscraper that jutted above the city skyline, "that was just a little family-owned store when I was here last. Now it's some giant megamall, trying to compete with the department store."

"Everything changes," Katherine said with a shrug. "Might as well get used to it." She was a little uncomfortable having Jeremy speak even here, in the home of a friend.

"Who knows what happened to the people I used to know," Jeremy said morosely, still staring out of the window. He didn't seem to have heard Katherine. "They've grown up. Stopped being trainers. Or maybe now they're the champions or gym leaders. They probably don't even remember me."

Katherine was a little irritated at Jeremy's self-pity. She had a strong urge to tell him to get over it, but she held her tongue. Besides, there was a question that she had been meaning to ask him, one that she had forgotten over dinner. Of course, it would probably just put him into an even deeper slump. "If you were a trainer, what happened to all of your Pokemon?" she asked. "Did they all get cursed too?"

Jeremy was silent for several moments. Katherine was beginning to doubt that he had heard her and was about to pose the question again, when he finally admitted, "I don't know." His voice was hollow and despairing. "I haven't seen them since the day that I turned into...this. They weren't on the island, that's for sure. The Mistress must have found some way to release them or to send them off somewhere. But if that's true..." he trailed off, hanging his head. "Why didn't they try to come back for me, to find me?"

"Umm, probably because of the whole curse thing," Katherine pointed out. "I don't think that I'd be willing to go near that Ninetales again if I'd somehow managed to escape."

"You would if your Pokemon had been captured by her, though, wouldn't you?" Jeremy said softly.

Katherine considered this. Her Pokemon were her most trusted companions. She loved them dearly, and they respected and admired her in return. She wouldn't just let them be captured by some sadistic Pokemon-gone-mad, curse or no curse. "Yes, I suppose I would," she agreed, somewhat reluctantly. "But then, I'm not known for making wise decisions, either."

"So would I have," Jeremy agreed, "so would I. I always thought that they would be more than willing to return the favor, that they would come looking for me. But no, in all those years not a one has returned in search of me, not a one come to my aid. Perhaps the Mistress is right, and I was never truly their friend. Perhaps I did indeed mistreat them, kept them locked away and miserable in the Pokeballs."

"The Mistress said that to you?" Katherine asked incredulously.

"Yes," Jeremy said. "She hates trainers, didn't tell you? She thinks that they are evil slavers, people who capture Pokemon and force them to fight. She dislikes all humans, in fact, as she feels that she condones trainers and their behavior."

"Wow. That's a bit harsh," Katherine observed. "I'm sure that you were a wonderful trainer, though. That Ninetales has things all wrong. Pokemon are friends with their trainers. Sure, there are a few bad apples out there, but you get that in any profession." As she said this, however, Katherine realized that she wasn't actually so sure. Jeremy seemed nice enough, but she really didn't know that much about him.

Jeremy didn't reply. He continued to stare pensively out of the window. Katherine suddenly felt overwhelmed with fatigue. "Look, I'm really tired. We're no doubt going to have another whirlwind day tomorrow, so why don't you get some sleep?"

"I will, I will," Jeremy replied. "Just not right now. You go ahead and turn off the light."

Shrugging, Katherine obliged, plunging the room into darkness. Jeremy became a dark silhouette against the faint glow that leaked into the room through the window. Katherine got into bed, but sleep didn't come as easily as she had hoped. Whenever she closed her eyes, she felt as though something was watching her from the other side of sleep, waiting for her to enter.


	11. The Meeting

Author's Notes: Thank you once again for reviewing! As for how long I've been writing, that's sort of a hard question to answer. I've been writing actual stories ever since third grade, which is when we got our first real writing assignments, but this is my third Pokemon story, and only the first that I've ever put up anywhere. I started writing the others about a year or so ago, I'd say.

I'm glad that you found the last chapter a little creepy, as that was the intent. I'm afraid that this chapter is (hopefully) more of the same. It's a bit short, but it is very important and I couldn't really think of anything else to tack on to it.

**Chapter 11: The Meeting**

The Ninetales was waiting by the water's edge as the moon climbed higher in the sky. She looked out over the rippling waves fixedly, as though by sitting and staring long enough she could catch some glimpse of the renegade Pokemon that was causing her so much grief. The dark horizon yielded nothing, however.

It was not long before a large grin faded into being near where the Ninetales was sitting. The row of gleaming teeth was soon followed by a pair of large, red eyes. They burned with an inner flame nearly as intense as that of the Ninetales herself, glowing a luminous red. The eyes roved for a minute before fixing on the Ninetales, seated nearby. A hazy black form drifted into being surrounding the disembodied eyes and mouth, slowly coalescing into a stocky, humanoid shape.

"Greetings, Grottlis," the Ninetales said to the Gengar. "I trust that you are well."

"There are few things that trouble the dead, Sasoliar," the Gengar replied. His mouth did not moved, fixed eternally in a wide grin, his voice seeming to drift on the wind, low, dark, and coming from all directions at once. "Indeed, I am well. Though I think that you must not be, if you have come to seek my council."

Grottlis was one of few who knew the Ninetales' true name. Those who spoke it did not do so lightly, but Sasoliar was not offended by the Gengar's conversational tone when he said it. They were old friends, and there are many actions that go unnoticed between such as they that would bring down terrible wrath under other circumstances.

"You are right, as always," Sasoliar agreed. "I have need of your aid, Grottlis."

"I am always willing to help another enlightened soul in need," Grottlis replied. "Please, tell me what it is that you want me to do for you."

"I need you to find a Pokemon, Grottlis," Sasoliar explained. "A Rattata, to be exact."

Though the Gengar's expression could not and did not change, his voice rang with slight consternation when it wafted into being once more. "A Rattata? Why a Rattata?"

"He is...a very special case, I am afraid," the Ninetales replied. "He is one of the Cursed, and he has escaped the island."

"_Escaped?_" The Gengar gasped in disbelief. His red eyes then narrowed in anger, the fire within them burning with more intensity. "When? How? Where did he go?"

Sasoliar had expected such questions, and smoothly told the tale of how, earlier that day, a certain Rattata had managed to stow away on a trainer's Pidgeot and leave the island. "So you see why I need your help, Grottlis," she concluded. "I am unable to track down the Pokemon. I cannot leave this isle for fear that it shall crumble into disorder without me. I need you to find Jeremy for me."

The Gengar was quiet for a moment, considering this. "What do you want me to do with the vermin when I find him?" he asked at length.

"Return him to me, of course," Sasoliar replied.

"Wouldn't it be more simple," the Gengar asked in a conspiratorial tone, "to ensure that he simply does not return at all?"

"Are you really asking me what I think you are?" Sasoliar asked in a shocked tone. "I'm no murderer, Grottlis. No matter what the wrongs done to me, I should never allow myself to sink to the level of humans."

"Now, now," Grottlis said silkily, "I'll promise that I won't harm a hair on his little head, if that's what pleases you. But you must understand that humans are slippery creatures. The only way to ensure that they do not escape is to put an end to their gallivanting once and for all."

"The answer is no, Grottlis," the Ninetales replied, her voice steely. "I ask only that you find Jeremy and return him to me. I shall deal with his punishment."

"As you wish," the Gengar said, though Sasoliar thought that she caught a slightly grudging tone in his voice."

"It is as I wish," Sasoliar pressed, voice firm.

The Gengar sighed wistfully, his red gaze wandering around the island and out over the ocean before suddenly snapping back to the Ninetales.

"And what of this human girl, the trainer?"

"I need not worry about her," Sasoliar said, a small smile gracing her muzzle. "Where Jeremy goes, she is sure to follow. Trust me."

The Gengar began to laugh then, an eerie, mocking noise that boomed out across the open water, rolling away into the night. His form began to shiver and drift away as though caught up by a fierce wind, his being blowing away like so much smoke. Last to depart was the glittering grin, the eternally fixed smile. The laughter did not fade away for several seconds after that.

Sasoliar continued to sit on the empty beach. Though she remained firm in the beliefs that she had expressed to the Gengar, he had planted an ever so tiny seed of doubt in her heart. All it would need was a little water, and it would sprout. At length, the Ninetales turned and returned to the dark, still forest, where none spoke her name. As she passed into the tangled underbrush, a dark shadow faded away into the deeper woods.

It was cold in the nighttime, eternally cold, as though Grottlis' restless soul had been plunged into ice-cold water and never grew numb to its chill. He did not travel over land but rather through it, skipping between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead much as a rock skips over water. Each time he bounced out into the realm of the living, he looked carefully about for some sign of a fiery aura, a lingering trace of magic that would lead him to the Rattata.

Long hours he searched, traversing the dark side of the world time and time again. He left only when the slow burning sensation of sunrise began, the beams of light cast by the great Sol himself piercing the gloom that was Grottlis' home.

He fled back to his own realm, to the dark and deserted tower inhabited only by memories. He took refuge in the darkness, and as he waited there for the light of day to dissipate once more so that he might begin his search over anew. Here he sat quietly and reflected on the past night's events, and as he thought, he would often break out into small fits of laughter, chuckling quietly to himself in the gloom.


	12. The Key

Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but I've been swamped by end-of-quarter school projects and haven't had much time to write. Hopefully I'll be past those by the end of next week and be back on track.

I'm sorry to hear that the previous chapter didn't turn out as unsettling as I'd hoped. I'll see what I can do for the next chapter that involves Grottlis to make it reflect his character a little better.

Chapter 12: The Key 

The morning dawned bright and cheery over Goldenrod, banishing the lingering shadows from the night before. Katherine found herself jolted from an uneasy slumber, grateful to be able to look out at the sun again. Jeremy had apparently gotten to sleep at some point; he was curled up on top of Katherine's pack in the corner. Katherine sat up and stretched, yawning widely. She reluctantly pushed the sheets aside and stood up, staggering of her room to the hall, where she found herself immersed in a wonderful scent.

Ms. Leafbaum was apparently already up and cooking; bangs and metallic clatters eminated from the kitchen, along with the smells of syrup and frying bacon. Katherine rounded the corner and stood in the doorway to the kitchen. "Good morning, Ms. Leafbaum," she said to Mark's mother, who was engaged in vigorously stirring a bowl of pancake batter.

She looked up and smiled. "Oh, good morning Katherine," she replied. "I just thought I'd make you a little something for breakfast before Mark comes. He said he'd be here sometime before lunch."

Katherine nodded and wandered back to her room, where Jeremy was rousing himself slowly. He uncurled his small body and stretched, catlike, back and forth. He then settled down to grooming himself, dragging his small tongue through his fur. Katherine reached down to retrieve her brush from a pocket in her pack next to him and started to work it through her hair.

Once both Katherine and Jeremy had made themselves adequately presentable, they headed to the kitchen, where Ms. Leafbaum was setting the final dish on the table. Again, she had done far more than was necessary, creating a huge spread of breakfast items, including pancakes with maple syrup, bacon, and a large pan of scrambled eggs.

The three of them sat down to another hearty meal, though Katherine was disappointed to find that it was not as cheery for her as the previous night's dinner had been. She couldn't get the uneasy feeling that had come over her last night out of her head, and she had a feeling that today was going to be yet another wild adventure which she might not yet be prepared for.

The clock in the kitchen slowly ticked off time, and soon it proudly announced that it was ten thirty. Ms. Leafbaum assured Katherine that Mark would certainly arrive soon. Katherine sat contentedly in the living room with her Pokedex, going over her Pokemon's statistics and thinking about what moves she should have them learn next. After what seemed an eternity of agonized waiting, Mark arrived.

He burst in through the door. "Mom, I'm home!" he yelled. Ms. Leafbaum came rushing to greet him, burying him in a deep hug.

"Oh, it's so good to see you again, Mark!" she said happily, relaxing her embrace.

"There's someone else here to see you, too. Katherine stopped by."

"Katherine?" Mark asked incredulously. "Well, that's a surprise."

"Yes she's just in the living room, there," Mark's mother replied indicating Katherine, who was lounging on the couch just inside the room. She gave Mark a cheery wave.

"Katherine!" he said with a chuckle, "I didn't see you! What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see what the next Johto champion looked like before he became famous, of course," Katherine replied slyly."

"Come on, there's plenty of room in the living room, and we've got plenty to talk about. Grab a seat. I made cookies," Ms. Leafbaum shooed Mark into the living room and dashed back to the kitchen for refreshments.

Mark took a seat on one of the squashy armchairs near the fireplace, and the two trainers inspected each other. Mark looked almost exactly as Katherine remembered him, though it had been nearly a year since she had last seen him. He had piercing blue eyes and short, curly blonde hair, though it was a darker shade than his mother's. He wore a perpetual grin and his "lucky shirt," a dark blue T-shirt depicting a Vaporean crouched in an attack position.

"You haven't changed much, Mr. Champion," Katherine told him.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Ms., uh, Trainer," he replied. "So what brings you my way, anyway?"

Katherine was about to reply but was interrupted by Ms. Leafbaum, who had returned from the kitchen. She was now laden with a large plate of chocolate chip cookies and a pair of Squirtle Sodas. She set the cookie platter down on the small coffee table in the middle of the living room and handed a soda to Katherine and Mark. "Don't spoil your lunches, now," she commanded with mock severity.

Katherine and Mark helped themselves to several cookies and Ms. Leafbaum settled herself on the couch opposite Katherine. Katherine passed a cookie to Jeremy, who accepted it eagerly. The cookies were still warm and very gooey, and his white stomach fur was soon stained brown.

Remembering Mark's question, Katherine answered as best she could without giving too much away. "I wanted to see my old Vulpix again, you know? I wondered how he was doing. I thought you might like to have another look at your Arcanine, too."

"Well, you're in luck," Mark replied. "I have your Vulpix with me, although he's actually a Ninetales now. That's nice of you. I really would like to see my old Growlithe, or Arcanine, again."

Jeremy's ears perked up at the word "Ninetales", but he otherwise didn't react. He had begun grooming himself, licking the chocolate off of his fur with relish.

"What's with the Rattata, by the way?" Mark asked, indicating Jeremy.

"Oh, he's just a present to one of my little cousins. She's always wanted a Pokemon, and she really loves Rattata. Her mom says that it would be fine for her to have one, so I went and caught her one. I'm just heading to Ecruteak now, actually, to go give him to her." Katherine lied quickly. It wasn't entirely untrue; one of the reasons that she had been backtracking was that her younger cousin, Sasha, would soon be old enough to begin her own Pokemon journey. Her aunt and uncle had charged Katherine with the task of finding a suitable Pokemon for their daughter to begin he quest with.

"Ah, one of those "Pokemon bequeathal" things," Mark said, nodding knowingly.

"That's how you got your Vaporeon, wasn't it?" Katherine asked, seeming to remember something along those lines.

Mark nodded. "Yeah, my uncle got it for me while he was still a trainer. Pity he quit; he probably could have been pretty good." Mark's first Pokemon had been his Vaporeon, and she was still one of his most valued companions. He had bought his lucky shirt in honor of her and he claimed that neither she nor the shirt had yet let him down.

"Why'd he quit?" Katherine asked absent-mindedly, thinking back to her own first Pokemon, Elekid.

"Same reason everyone does, I suppose," Mark replied with a shrug. "Got tired of it. Got tired of the life. Some people just sort of...lose interest."

The four people in the room, all of whom had been trainers or were trainers now, fell silent, contemplating Mark's serious words.

Mark's mother broke the silence. "Enough of the sad talk," she announced. "Let's hear what you've been up to, Mark."

Just as Katherine had been the previous evening, Mark was more than eager to describe his recent exploits. He enthusiastically described his battle with Clair, where his Vaporeon had once again led him to victory. He described the email that he had received from the Johto League shortly thereafter, inviting him to the invitational that was held at the end of each Johto League season to determine the champion, and his plans for the future. "I've never been to the Indigo Plateau," he explained, "so I'm going to have to hike there instead of flying like I'm used to. I need to be quick about it, too; the tournament's a week from now, and it's a long walk. I'll be flying down to New Barktown later today."

"Wow," said Katherine. She couldn't imagine what Mark must be going through, the anticipation of the coming battles and the lingering doubt that just maybe he might not be good enough. That maybe he'd do poorly and embarrass himself in front of half of the world. The tournament would be televised, as it was one of the largest Pokemon events of the year.

"What about you, Katherine?" he asked. "How's your badge quest going?"

"Not so well, I'm afraid," Katherine sighed. "I have six. I was a little distracted by the whole "need to catch Pokemon for cousin" thing, but once I've got that little errand dealt with, I should be back on track." _Assuming that I'm back at all_, she thought to herself.

"That's good," Mark replied. "Well, if you wanted to see your Ninetales, we better head outside. It's a bit cramped in here."

Katherine nodded. "Makes sense. Shall we?"

The pair stepped outside onto the street, closely followed by Mark's mother and Jeremy, who was scampering along in the rear. Mark selected a Pokeball from his belt and tossed it lightly out onto the street. "Come on out, Ninetales," he commanded. A golden fox Pokemon leapt daintily from the ball as it burst open, turning back to face Mark as the Pokeball reversed trajectory, returning to his hand.

"Go, Arcanine!" Katherine cried, sending out his Pokeball. He bounded out of it in a burst of white light. The huge red Pokemon towered over the dainty Ninetales, who looked up at him with interest.

"Growlithe!" Mark called. Arcanine, confused, turned around to see who was calling him by his former name. Spotting Mark, he gave a loud bark and bounded over to him.

"Vulpix?" Katherine asked the Ninetales uncertainly. He looked up at her with wisdom in his eyes.

"Niiine," he replied softly. Katherine knelt down so as to be at a better level to talk with him.

"You certainly look different," she said in wonderment. The Ninetales warmed to her admiration, drawing himself up proudly and lashing his long tails. "Listen, Ninetales, there's something very important that I wanted to see you about," Katherine explained to him. "I have a friend who really wants to talk to you."

Hearing his cue, Jeremy emerged from behind Katherine's back.

When the Ninetales saw the diminutive rodent scurry out from behind his former trainer, he became immensely curious. He arched his graceful neck down so as to sniff the newcomer. When he did so, however, his head snapped back up as though he had been hit full in the face with a Water Gun, and the expression on his face wouldn't have been an unexpected sight in that situation either. He bowed down to the Rattata, but this time it was cold determination that illuminated his red eyes rather than playful interest. "Niine. Tales. Tales nine." he hissed in a low voice.

"Ratta! Rat rat," Jeremy replied. The two became engrossed in a heated discussion, Pokemon language flying back and forth between them faster than Katherine could follow. Usually, she could get the gist of what a Pokemon was saying, but these two seemed to be able to understand each other word-for-word.

Bored, Katherine turned to see how Mark was getting along with Arcanine. Quite well, apparently. The burly Pokemon was enthusiastically licking Mark's face, ignoring the trainer's half-hearted attempts to shove him away. Mark's mother was laughing delightedly at the spectacle, and people passing by on the street smiled at the pair.

The conversation behind Katherine seemed to have worked up to some kind of argument. The Pokemon were exchanging angry words loudly. Ninetales' eyes burned angrily and he was furiously lashing his long tails. Jeremy was bristling and fairly yelling at the top of his small lungs. Katherine hoped that Mark wouldn't notice the apparent hatred between the pair and separate them.

That didn't seem likely. Having finally managed to restrain Arcanine, Mark was letting the rest of his Pokemon out to see their old friend. Pokemon appeared in bursts of multicolored light, turning the street into a menagerie in a matter of seconds. Katherine eagerly dashed over to have a look at them.

There was no doubt about it; Mark's Pokemon had definitely improved since the last time that she had seen him, and he had a couple new ones as well. His Flaaffy had apparently evolved, as an Ampharos was now trundling around the street, barking "Amph! Amph!" in its odd, slightly nasal voice.

A Piloswine snorted grumpily, trying to blow the hair away from its tiny eyes to see better. It began to lumber up to Arcanine to say hello, but accidentally blundered into another of Mark's Pokemon instead. The Raticate gently pushed Piloswine away and chattered directions to it, allowing it to make its way over to Arcanine without any further collisions. Mark's old Tangela was shyly standing near the Raticate, clearly in awe of the fiery dog. The vines encompassing its body rustled and swayed uncertainly, and its large eyes peered out with a mixture of curiosity and fear at the powerful fire-type.

Mark's final team member was as calm and aloof as ever, sitting off to the side and taking the scene in coolly. The Vaporeon watched Arcanine with interest, her flat blue eyes regarding him intensely and her mermaid-like tail lashing thoughtfully behind her. Her perpetually damp skin shone slickly in the midmorning sun as Katherine walked up to her. She turned his head as she approached, flicking her ribbed ears. "How's it going, Vaporeon?" she asked her conversationally.

"Vaaaa," he replied thoughtfully, cocking his head to one side. "Eeon, vaporeon."

"Pretty well for me, too, thanks," Katherine replied, guessing that Vaporeon had returned the question. She felt rather uncomfortable lying to the Vaporeon, who appeared immensely wise, as though she knew the truth of Katherine's situation. She merely nodded in a satisfied way, then turned her attention back to the rest of Mark's Pokemon. They were playfully tussling with Arcanine, who was by far the largest of any of them.

Jeremy and Ninetales' argument had apparently ended when Katherine turned back to the pair. Ninetales seemed to be giving Jeremy some sort of speech, talking slowly and with emphasis. Jeremy was listening intently and occasionally nodding. The Ninetales reached the end of his monologue and turned around on himself in one fluid motion, burying his muzzle in the long fur of one of his tails. He appeared to fish for something with his mouth, then seized hold of it and turned back around to Jeremy. In his mouth was a single long, golden strand of fur, which he had apparently pulled out of his tail. He set it down carefully on the pavement, and Jeremy scurried over to retrieve it. The Ninetales then abruptly stood up and trotted over to Katherine.

"All done with him?" Katherine asked.

"Tales," Ninetales replied emphatically.

"You want to see your old friends again, huh?" Katherine asked him, reaching for the Pokeballs on her belt.

"Niine, nine," he replied enthusiastically. Katherine obligingly grabbed her Pokemon's Pokeballs off of her belt and tossed them into the air.

"Come on out, everyone!" she called. As the shower of Pokeballs hit the cobblestones they burst open to disgorge the rest of her team, who quickly surrounded Ninetales, talking excitedly to him. An unpleasant stench wafted across the street, causing passers by to wrinkle their noses in disgust and hurry past and Mark, his Pokemon, and his mother all turned to see what was generating the horrible smell.

"Mukkk! Mukmukmuk!" Muk bellowed excitedly at the sight of Ninetales. He extended his goopy hand, scattering the rest of Katherine's team who quickly darted out of its path. Ninetales shrank away as well.

"Err, you remember Muk, don't you, Ninetales?" Katherine asked nervously. She didn't want to have Ninetales grow angry and begin trying to torch Muk, but the Pokemon appeared to gather his courage and allowed himself to be greeted by Muk, who of course wanted a handshake. That done, Muk seemed to be satisfied, and Katherine hastily returned him to his Pokeball. Pidgeot irritably blasted the lingering stench away with an underpowered Whirlwind, and her Pokemon settled down to enjoy a bit of time with old friends.

There then ensued a half an hour period in which Mark's team and Katherine's team frolicked together as much as was possible in the confines of the city street. They chased each other up and down the wide path, wrestled with each other, and generally made fools of themselves. The three humans looked on with amused pleasure, as parents do over frolicking children. When it seemed that the Pokemon were finally beginning to wind down, Mark and Katherine asked them to bid adieu to each other and returned them to their Pokeballs.

"Well, I guess I'd better be off," Mark said reluctantly after his Vaporeon disappeared into its Pokeball once more. "I have a lot of walking to do and not much time to do it in. It was nice to be seeing you again, Katherine. And I promise I'll come home again right after the tournament."

"I'll be watching for you," Ms. Leafbaum said cheerfully, "and you can bet that I'll drag as many of the neighbors as I can into it. I'll tie them to a chair and force them to stare at the TV while you're on, if I have to." Mark chuckled and gave his mom another hug.

"See you around, Mark," Katherine said regretfully, hoping that this whole mess would settle out all right and she would truly be able to see him again. Mark nodded and started off down the street, waving goodbye as he went. His mother waved emphatically after him as he disappeared around a corner, headed south down the main street.

She stopped waving and turned to Katherine. "I suppose that you'll be leaving now, too?" she asked regretfully.

Katherine nodded. "I'll be sure to stop by and visit when I'm in the area. Maybe I'll bring my little cousin along when she gets her Pokemon."

"I'd love that, dear," Ms. Leafbaum replied. "You're welcome any time." She returned to her home, and Katherine sighed and turned to look at Jeremy. He had sat aloof from the silliness that had gripped her Pokemon as they gleefully played with old friends. He had been sitting moodily off to the side, occasionally running the long strand of fur given to him by the Ninetales through his forepaws.

Katherine walked over to him and crouched down. She surreptitiously looked left and right to be sure that there was no one around. The street was empty for the moment, so she leaned in close to Jeremy. "So, where to next?" she asked quietly.

"Blackthorn," Jeremy hissed quietly. He then put the strange strand of fur into his mouth and scurried up Katherine's arm to rest on her shoulder. Katherine sighed inwardly. She had been enjoying a peaceful brake from weird Pokemon and curses and the like, but it appeared that now was the time to return to business.

"Go, Pidgeot," she called, throwing down his Pokeball. Pidgeot appeared somewhat perplexed at being called out so soon after having been returned to his Pokeball, and he looked questioningly at Katherine. "We're taking a little trip to Blackthorn, Pidgeot, and we need to get their fast," Katherine told him. She hoped that it would just be a little trip, at least.

Pidgeot obediently allowed Katherine to mount and then kicked off from the ground, his wide wings sweeping through the air and propelling them upwards. "Geooot!" he shrieked, banking to face northwest and pumping his wings to gain speed. Soon the wind was howling in Katherine's ears as he streaked above the ground, flying high and fast.

"So, Jeremy," she Katherine addressed him sarcastically, practically having to yell over the roaring of the wind, "it looked like you and Ninetales got along pretty well there."

Jeremy glared at her grumpily. "He didn't like me at all, that's for sure. Thought I was too impertinent, or something like that." Katherine could imagine that word being used to describe Jeremy quite well, but she remained silent. "Anyway, he took a good look at me and said that the curse on me was too powerful for him to remove by himself. He did say, however, that he knew of a certain place where we could go to find someone who would be able to help me out."

"I assume that that's why we're headed to Blackthorn," Katherine deduced.

Jeremy shrugged. "Blackthorn's just the starting point. We'll be headed out into the mountains near there to reach our destination. According to your old Ninetales, we're looking for an old volcano, one that's been inactive for a pretty long time. He was a little sketchy on the details, but he said that if we followed the first river that we came to after leaving Blackthorn from the north we'd be hard-pressed to miss it."

"What's with the fur thing?" Katherine asked.

"Oh, that," Jeremy said reluctantly. "Well, that's sorta the reason that your Nintales was sure we wouldn't be able to miss the mountain. It's a sacred place for Vulpix and Ninetales, goodness knows why. He said he expected there to be guards there, who might try to stop us from getting into the mountain. That's why he gave me this," here he held up the long strand of fur, which he had been clutching with one of his small white forepaws. It streamed out behind him, shining golden in the unclouded sunlight. "He said it was some sort of token that would make the guards let us through."

Katherine couldn't believe it. Her old Ninetales respected her enough to give her the key to one of his specie's most important places? She couldn't believe it. He might know her well enough to know that she was a kind person and wouldn't dream of intentionally abusing the privilege, but she couldn't imagine him giving her such an honor. "I can't believe that he would trust me with something like this," she breathed to herself.

Jeremy's keen ears caught the words even over the screaming of the wind. He shifted uncomfortable on her shoulder. "I said something like that too, and your Ninetales just laughed," he said uncomfortably. "He told me that it wasn't really so much that he trusted us, just that he was sure that if we abused the privilege we wouldn't be alive long enough to enjoy it."


	13. The Dream Eater

Author's Notes: This is a long Author's Notes section today, so feel free to scroll down to the actual story if you don't feel like reading them all.

Thanks for reviewing! That's the whole reason I keep writing, after all. I'll do my best to answer your questions, cat. Firstly, Jeremy will be able to remember how to speak Pokemon after he gets changed back (it took him a long time to learn it, so he's not going to go forgetting it real fast)...assuming he survives that long. Muahaha. Second, what happened to Jermey's Pokemon and the rest that came to the island with their trainers remains a mystery...for now. None of the cursed trainers can be caught in Pokeballs. More on that in Chapter 16. They cannot evolve for similar reasons. Each Pokemon experiences the inside of a Pokeball differently; usually, it is whatever reminds them most of home. The Ninetales selects what each trainer will change into when cursed, which is why the trainers are all fairly weak, unevolved Pokemon, though she does try to select based on each trainer's personality (which is why Seth is a Spearow). Finally, Jess is the only female trainer on the island and also the only Togepi, so no. Thank you for your review!

I noticed today that this story has no chapter three. Funky, eh?

Finally, I had intended to do this fanfic using only R/B/G/S Pokemon, but then realized that I made Satoran a Nincada. Oops.

Enough of that. On to chapter 13!

**Chapter 13: The Dream Eater**

It was early morning in the forest, the Pokemon within just beginning to waken and stir, slowly emerging from their nests or burrows to blink in the dazzling sunlight. One Pokemon, however, was already up and about, trundling resolutely the underbrush.

Satoran's six segmented legs carried him through a prickly Wepear bush, motoring over the forest floor's carpet of dead leaves and branches. His multifaceted eyes winked and gleamed, reflecting a thousand different images into a single picture. He had arisen early to seek out one of the forest's most reclusive figures, the Hypno Delrairon. Though where he spent most of his day was a mystery, he was known to always appear at a certain spot every morning to pick some of his favorite berries, Tamatos, from the only bush on the island.

Satoran came to the stream rushing through the stirring forest, muttering softly to itself as it wound lazily towards the ocean. Satoran's mandibles twitched nervously as he surveyed the only way across, a series of slick rocks that jutted up from the water. A ground-type Pokemon such as himself would certainly not enjoy an early morning swim, and the stream ran very quickly.

Satoran backed away from the bank, then dashed forward again, throwing the power of his hind legs in to a leap of faith that carried him out over the water. For a heartbeat he seemed to hang in the air, contemplating the water that rushed beneath him, and then he hit the rock with an impact that jarred any philosophical thoughts that he might be pondering out of his head. The small claws on his legs slid over the rock, then caught and held, bringing him to a halt before he pitched into the water. He scrambled up to the highest point of the partially submerged rock and readied himself for another leap.

Four rocks later and he was on solid ground once more, the stream behind him angrily whispering to itself its disappointment at his success. He had to hurry, knowing that if he delayed Delrairon might move on and Satoran would have to wait another day to speak to him. He skittered once more into the dense underbrush, fighting through bushes and over fallen logs until he came within sight of the berry grove.

To his relief, Delrairon was there, bent over the Tamato bush. At a distance, it was possible to mistake Delrairon for a short, bald old human. Upon closer inspection, however, it became glaringly obvious that this was not the case. The Hypno's thick skin was a bright yellow color, his ears large and slightly pointed. He had an unkempt ruff of white fur around his neck, what little there was of it. Satoran skittered up to the old Pokemon, who turned around at the sound of his approach.

"Greetings, Delrairon," Satoran greeted the Hypno respectfully.

Delrairon inspected Satoran through his small, squinted eyes that made him seem to be always only half-awake. The pendant that he perpetually held clasped in his right hand swayed gently back and forth, back and forth. "And good morning to you as well, small one. What is it that you want of me?" he asked Satoran in his gravely voice.

Satoran forced himself to ignore the hypnotic pendant and replied, "I beg a moment of your time to ask you a question, wise one."

"I am not wise," retorted Delrairon, "merely an observer of the unobserved. But very well. What is your question?"

"I want to know about the meadow here in the woods where the Mistress has no power," Satoran replied.

Delrairon's bulbous nose twitched and his eyes narrowed to mere slits. "Why do you want to know about that?" he grunted.

"My friends and I believe that the meadow may possess some power that allows it to remain free of the Misstress' influence. If that is the case, then we feel that we may be able to use it to free the rest of the island from the curse."

"Then you are chasing a moonbeam, little one," Delrairon replied. "There is only one that may remove the curse from the island, and that is the Mistress herself."

Satoran's small heart sank. "So the meadow is not important."

"Important only in that it holds the key to lifting the curse from the island," Delrairon answered absentmindedly, his left hand fishing around in the Tamato bush.

Satoran sighed. He should have expected that out of the Hypno. "Tell me why it is important, then," he implored.

Delrairon pulled a Tomato berry out of the bush and bit into it with relish, the red juice dribbling down onto his white mane. "It is the home of Sasoliar, the place where she alone has power," he replied at length.

"Sasoliar? Who's that?" Satoran asked eagerly.

"Eh?" Delrairon blinked. "What's Sasoliar got to do with all of this? I thought we were talking about the Mistress."

"Yes, Delrairon, that was what we were talking about," Satoran replied exasperatedly. It appeared that Trevor had been right and he wouldn't get anything out of the recalcitrant Hypno.

"Well, then, if you want to know about defeating her," Delrairon replied, "I'd suggest that you try to keep that meadow from disappearing. If it should wither away, then we'd all perish, and the Mistress to boot."

"Really? Why is that?" Satoran pressed, sensing that Delrairon was growing bored with the conversation and wouldn't talk for much longer.

"You've seen the flower that grows in the meadow, yes?" Delrairon asked. "The one that grows only there?"

Satoran nodded. Occasionally, a Pokemon would manage to sneak into the meadow for a pleasant stroll before being forcibly removed by one of the Guardians. Such adventurers usually brought some of the flowers back with them, and Satoran had seen them many times. Once Allekendro had even managed to dig up an entire plant and smuggle it back into the forest. He planted it in the sunlight and tended it carefully, but to his dismay, it withered and died.

"What does it remind you of?" Delrairon asked Satoran.

"Uhhh..." Satoran thought hard. "Fire, I guess."

Delrairon nodded with satisfaction. "Then you know all that you need to know," he announced with conviction. With that, he turned away and began to push through the undergrowth, irritably shoving bushes out of his way.

Satoran seriously considered dashing after Delrairon and demanding more clear answers, but he decided against it. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Delrairon's psychic attacks, and he doubted the effort would really be worth it anyway. He instead wheeled around and began on his way back to his area of forest.

All the way back, he fumed and wondered why it was that everyone thought that Delrairon was so wise. "It's because he eats Pokemon's dreams," he muttered to himself. "Pokemon think that he learns so much from them. Bah! Dreams are dreams. What can you learn from them?"

Flames all around her, their grasping hands reaching out to her from every side. Their burning touch could not harm her, imbuing her instead with a strange energy, but still she ran from them desperately, tearing around the empty room.

The flames engulfed beautiful paintings, opulent rugs, and antique furniture as they sought to sate their eternal hunger. Though the fire could not harm her, it was indirectly killing her, filling the enclosed room with choking smoke. The heavy door was closed and locked. She could not open it. The windows were closed, set high up in the walls, beyond her reach.

Her panicked flight sent her careening into a huge display case filled with precious stones. It teetered uncertainly, one of its legs already partially consumed by fire, then gave in and toppled sideways, the glass pane on its front smashing and its contents spilling out across the floor. Still she ran, around and around the room. She passed by the felled cabinet again, glass shards cutting into her delicate footpads. As she frantically dashed by, she accidentally kicked one of the strange rocks that had skittered out onto the floor. When her foot touched it began to burn, as though the rock had held some sort of fire within it that resisted her innate ability to absorb it. She stopped her mad dash and howled in pain and despair, shaking the burning paw as though she might flick away the pain as one might flick away drops of water.

Instead, the burning sensation spread, flowing up until it engulfed her entire body. She shuddered and shut her eyes...

...and snapped them open to find them staring at a darkened room, musty and damp. Sunlight streamed in through a shattered window, leaving a dappled pattern on the floor.

Sasoliar rose, stretching and shaking herself, the dream shaken away along with dust from the mansion's rotting floorboards. She put the events of the previous night out of her mind, confident that Grottlis would soon apprehend Jeremy and return him to her. She set out to go about her morning rounds, stepping out of the mansion and into the reassuring light of the sun.

Her normal path took her past the strange meadow. Sasoliar stopped and stared at it irritably, much as one might stare at an old store sign that was missing a few of its letters. It was a nuisance, a blemish that she intended to be rid of someday, when she had determined how. She walked over to it now, feeling the odd tingle that passed over her whenever she left her domain.

Once within the boundaries of the meadow, she stopped and looked behind her uncertainly. She walked back into the forest. Again, the tingling sensation. Back to the meadow.

She sat down on her haunches, staring in surprise back at the forest. Shaking her head, she gave a small chuckle. There could be no doubt.

The meadow was smaller than it had been the day before.


	14. The Mountain

Author's Notes: Thanks for reviewing. Yes, Keleri, the difference in trainer's licenses reflects the game differences. After all, if releasing two versions of the game helps Nintendo's coffers, it does the same for the Pokemon League...trainers may qualify for their first license free, but they have to buy the second, and many do in order to "catch 'em all."

**Chapter 14: The Mountain**

Pidgeot flew quickly over Johto, the miles rolling away beneath him in a perfect miniature landscape of brown and green and blue. He was headed northwest to the city of Blackthorn, home of the Dragon's Den and the final Johto League gym leader, Clair. In almost no time at all, the city appeared below.

He curbed his furious speed and went into a slow descent, eventually circling down to land lightly outside of Blackthorn's Pokemon Center. He allowed his passengers to dismount, then obediently returned to his Pokeball at his trainer's command.

Katherine marveled at Blackthorn's scenery as she stood outside of the Pokemon Center. She had been to the city only twice before, once when she and her parents had attended the annual Pokemon festival held there, and the second time when she had been asked to deliver a message to a friend of her mother's. The city was built in a valley, nestled between the harsh slopes of the Thorn mountain range. Grim and foreboding peaks surrounded it, thrusting their snowy heads up to the vaulted heavens. The very air seemed to whisper with something ancient and dignified, cold and unfeeling as ice. The town was known for the Dragon's Den, a mysterious place where the rare dragon-types gathered. Few people ventured to the city's north, where treacherous mountain passes and unpredictable weather discouraged all but the most dedicated, or insane, adventurer.

Katherine was under the impression that they wouldn't have to go too far out of the city to reach their destination, however. The Dragon's Well, a roaring mountain stream that fed the underground lake in the Dragon's Den, cut across the Thorn range perhaps a quarter mile north of Blackthorn. If the mountain that they were bound to was just a little bit beyond that, then they should easily be able to reach it by early afternoon.

Jeremy was still holding on to the long strand of golden fur given to him by Katherine's Ninetales. "Here, why don't I hold on to that?" she asked him. He relinquished the token with a shrug. Katherine was unnerved as she took the delicate strand; it was warm in her hand, undaunted by the thin, frigid air around it. Katherine stuffed it into the pocked on the front of her sweatshirt and stepped into the Pokemon Center.

The cheery hustle and bustle within helped to banish the eerie thoughts that seemed to pervade the air outside. It was warm and bright inside the Center, and filled with the usual chatter of trainers and their Pokemon. Many of the trainers were gathered around the TV in the Center's waiting area, watching intently. Katherine peered at the screen without much interest as she passed; it appeared to be a news program explaining some sort of outer space occurrence. Katherine walked over to the Center's vending machines. She needed a lunch for herself and Jeremy. She didn't have to worry about buying something to drink; her canteen was full of water, and she could always get more from the Dragon's Well.

"What would you like?" she asked Jeremy, indicating the machine. He considered for a minute, then pointed out a ham and cheese sandwich and a bag of pretzels. Katherine went for a plain old peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of potato chips, then bought an additional pair of bags of trail mix to eat on the way. She fed the machine several bills, and the items fell into the bottom with a few loud thunks. She retrieved them and stuffed them into her pack, then prepared to head back out and hit the trail.

She took an old mountain path winding behind the gym and out into the untamed range beyond. Rough and unkempt, it was rocky and bumpy beyond measure. Even a seasoned adventurer such as Katherine soon found herself out of breath in the thin mountain air, cursing every pothole that she stuck her foot into and every unpleasant detour that they were forced to take. She broke out the trail mix, and she and Jeremy munched on it on the way, supplemented by water from Katherine's canteen.

It was lunchtime when they finally reached the Dragon's Well. It roared in suitably dragonlike fashion, cascading angrily around numerous large rocks and falling in curtains of water down sharp drops. Katherine settled herself on a rock near the river and she and her Pokemon enjoyed an uneventful lunch break. After lunch, Katherine set out for the second part of her journey.

She followed the winding Dragon's Well as it roared down through the mountains towards the Dragon's Den, heedless of terrain. Katherine slid down steep slopes, crashed through prickly underbrush, and squelched through mud in pursuit of her goal. As she walked further downriver, she began to seriously doubt her Ninetales' words. After all, though the Dragon's Well took a very roundabout route to the Dragon's Den, it seemed impossible to her that the Pokemon could have effectively hidden a whole colony of themselves from humans on the edge of civilization. Vulpix and Nintales were much sought-after by trainers, as they were rare in most areas.

As she rounded a bend in the river, however, she thought she saw the mountain that Ninetales had described. It was shorter and less jagged than those around it, and its peak was not a wicked point as most of the mountains in the Fang range. "Think that's where we're headed?" she asked Jeremy.

"Definitely," he replied. He was staring at the mountain eagerly, leaning forward on Katherine's shoulder.

Katherine continued forward, finding the going much easier here, where the level of inclination leveled off considerably. The area was almost a small valley ringing the ancient volcano. Low scrub bushes clung to the rocky soil here, creating a prickly barrier that Katherine had to push through, but she preferred it to sliding down steep slopes any day. "Funny," she remarked to no one in particular, "I thought that we'd be seeing some sort of guards by now. You know, patrolling or something. There's not really anything around here that they could hide, you know. This scrub stuff isn't sufficient cover if you're a Pokemon that's going to shine whenever the sun hits you." Jeremy made no reply, merely watching the area warily, his large ears alert and quivering.

Despite her experience as a traveler and adventurer, Katherine was unable to detect the eyes that watched her with considerable amusement from the "insufficient" cover of the scrub brush. The pair of eyes looked to one another. Some signal passed between them, and the second set inexplicably vanished like candle snuffed out by a sudden gust of wind.

"This doesn't make any sense," Katherine thought aloud. "The river branches off and continues on either side of the mountain. It's a volcano surrounded by water! Why would a bunch of fire Pokemon live in a place surrounded by water? How would they get in and out?" Jeremy gave her an exasperated look that she fortunately didn't notice, then returned to his watch, even more unsettled than before.

Suddenly, Pokemon appeared all around them, as though they had been magically transported from some other realm stand in the field. Three forbidding Ninetales stood in a ring around them, glaring coolly at the pair with ruby eyes. Four Vulpix, barely tall enough to see over the concealing bushes but somehow managing to look intimidating, filled in the gaps between their evolved forms, creating a ring around the unlucky travelers.

Katherine was struck dumb, completely taken off guard. Jeremy hissed something beneath his breath that Katherine assumed was a very violent Pokemon curse. The fox Pokemon did not appear at all amused to see a human and her Pokemon intruding upon their territory with the apparent intention of exploring. Katherine's hand instinctively strayed to the Pokeballs on her belt, though her rational mind knew that she would be roasted long before she could call on the aid of one of her Pokemon. "Quick," snarled Jeremy, "give me the token!"

Katherine grabbed it out of her sweatshirt pocket, and Jeremy snatched it impatiently. Holding it up so that it glittered in the sunlight, he began some sort of speech in Pokemon, chattering and hissing loudly. The Ninetales' expression did not change, though some of the Vulpix appeared to be at a loss for what to do and surreptitiously glanced at their superiors for a guide as to how to react.

Jeremy came to the end of his monologue, then waited for the guards' reply. None came. The Pokemon continued to watch Jeremy coldly. One of the Ninetales coughed, and Katherine was alarmed to see a small tongue of flame flicker out of its mouth. Jeremy began to talk again, much faster than before, waving the glittering strand of fur around for emphasis. Katherine thought he sounded entirely too much like a convicted criminal begging for his life before being put to death.

The Ninetales that had coughed, whom Katherine now assumed was the leader, cut Jeremy off with a sharp bark, "Tales!" Jeremy fell silent and froze immediately, caught in mid-wave. The Ninetales then turned to one of the other of its kind. "Alestalesnine. TalesNialestalestales," it snarled, and the addressed Ninetales gave a respectful nod and began to cut a path through the scrub brush towards Katherine and Jeremy. It halted directly in front of Katherine, who was too scared to move.

"Niine. Tales tales niiine," he commanded. Jeremy hesitated, but a small flicker of flame in the Ninetales' eye caused him to obligingly hold the long strand of fur out to the guard. The Ninetales leaned in close to inspect the token, so close that his breath caused the strand to sway back and forth. He inspected it from all angles and sniffed it critically. He then turned back to the leader and proceeded to give his report. "Taales. Nine nine taaales."

Whatever he had said, it caused Jeremy to visibly relax but seemed to displease the leader. His snout contorted into a displeased scowl, and he remained stonily silent for a moment. He then gave the curt command, "Tales. Tales tales tales nine nine tales." He wheeled around in a huff, took a step forward, and vanished. The two other Ninetales followed his lead, and the four Vulpix moved in to form a tighter circle around Katherine, peering up at her with undisguised interest. "What's going on?" Katherine asked Jeremy.

"Good news," he said, relief evident in his tone. "The leader says that it appears that we have been given permission to enter. He will allow us to enter the mountain, but warns us that the elders will be most displeased and may refuse to see us. He has ordered the four Vulpix to escort us."

The Vulpix were indeed trying to herd Katherine forward. Katherine, not sure of what to expect, stepped forward with caution. She suddenly found herself standing at the edge of a wide tunnel bored through the rocky ground. The Vulpix urged her in. Katherine found her questions to suddenly be answered; the Ninetales entered and left the mountain through tunnels. If they had this one then they probably had others as well, and they no doubt crossed under the riverbed. This was how the Ninetales had appeared so quickly; they had emerged from the tunnels from which they had been watching the pair's approach.

Katherine was fascinated to find that the tunnels were lit not by any artificial means of illumintion but by shafts dug upwards that brought sunlight in to brighten the tunnel. Jeremy explained that the sun was the source of much of a fire Pokemon's power and they could not bear to be without its presence for any great length of time.

The Vulpix continued to press Katherine down through the tunnel, chattering amongst themselves almost inaudibly. They passed beneath the river, a dark section where no shafts admitted sunlight and where the walls oozed dampness. It didn't seem to bother the Vulpix in the least. The tunnel began to slope upward, and soon Katherine had the impression that they were in the mountain itself.

The halls here narrowed considerably to be more Ninetales-sized. Katherine soon found herself stooped as she proceeded. Small windows cut into the side of the mountain provided light once again. Katherine asked about the difference in tunnel sizes, and as this didn't seem to be an objectionable to the guards, one replied. "Vulll. Pixvullix." she purred.

Jeremy was happy to translate. "She says that the tunnels outside were old Onix burrows and were how Vulpix and Ninetales first gained access to the mountain. These new passages were carved out for the express purpose of housing Vulpix and Ninetales."

Soon they came to a crossing, where several halls branched off from one another. Some led deeper into the heart of the mountain, some angled upwards, and some continued on around its outer shell. The Vulpix herded them deeper into the mountain.

Here, windows no longer carried sunlight into the winding corridors. They were lit instead by a veritable army of will-o'-the-wisps. The pale balls of flame drifted across the roof of the halls, casting a ghostly pallor upon those beneath. They swirled and eddied as though blown by an otherworldly wind or stirred by the current of an alien ocean. Occasionally, one of the lights would inexplicably go out, only to be replaced by others that faded in from thin air.

Katherine felt strangely calm and comforted in their presence, but sorrowful and regretful as well. If the Vulpix noticed anything, however, they showed no sign. Jeremy was watching the will-o'-the-wisps with undisguised amazement, craning his head back so that he nearly overbalanced and toppled off of Katherine's shoulder. As no explanation seemed forthcoming, Katherine decided to ask about the strange phenomenon. "Where do all these will-o'-the-wisps come from?" she asked the guard nearest her.

He looked up to the ceiling, then shook his head and replied "Pixx. Vulvul pix vulpix."

"He doesn't know," Jeremy said without taking his eyes off the glowing flames. "They came with the place. It's one of the reasons that the Ninetales consider this to be a sacred mountain."

Katherine was still marveling at the spectacle when they apparently reached their destination. The Vulpix in front of her stopped abruptly, causing Katherine to nearly tread on her fine tails before reacting. "Pixvul," the guard snapped irritably, nodding towards the wall. Katherine looked as indicated to find a low entrance carved into the wall, leading into a small, empty cavern.

She had to stoop to cross the threshold, and was still unable to stand upright on the other side. Nor was she willing to extend her head all of the way up, as a few will-o'-the-wisps circled lazily near the ceiling and she didn't want to collide with one of them. The room had no door, but two of the Vulpix settled themselves down by the room's sole entrance, apparently intending to prevent the prisoners from escaping. The other two must have been dismissed, as they continued down the hall, soon disappearing from view.

Katherine sighed and settled herself down against the room's back wall, leaning against it and looking up. For a while she occupied herself with watching the will-o'-the-wisps, wondering if she would be able to discern some pattern in their paths. They seemed to be moving at random, however, and she soon grew bored of this pursuit.

After what seemed an eternity, a regal-looking Ninetales came down the hallway, his long tails swaying proudly behind him. The Vulpix guards rose to attention respectfully as he approached. "Talestalesnine. Niine," he ordered, and they nodded and moved off down the hall in direction that Katherine had been brought in from. Turning to the pair in the room, he addressed them. "Niine. Tales. Talesnine talestales."

"He says to come with him," Jeremy explained, and Katherine scrambled to her feet, careful not to extend to her full height, still mindful of the strange flame circling just above her head. The Ninetales nodded appreciatively and turned around, starting off down hall. Katherine followed. "The council has agreed to hear our story," Jeremy explained as they were led through the winding corridors, now headed upward. "It has been a very, very long time since any human has set foot in these halls, and they wish to know what dire circumstances should bring us to their home."

At last, their long climb was over, and Katherin finally left the tunnels. She stretched to her full height with relief, stretching the cramps from her back and neck and breathing fresh air once more. She then peered around with interest at the place into which they had emerged. It appeared to be the caldera of the long-dead volcano, walls of rock forming a protective barrier against the wind and prying eyes. Most of the area was taken up by a small pond formed by collected rainwater. The edges of the lake were barren, few plants able to survive in the cold heights of the mountain.

Their Ninetales escort nodded across the water, then turned and disappeared into the tunnel once more. Katherine followed his gaze and saw a pair of Ninetalesl returning her stare coolly. Katherine hurried around the water, coming to stand before the pair, whom she assumed were the council.

Ninetales could live for close to one thousand years, but specimens as old as this couple were few and far between. Their hair had gone from the golden color of youth to the spun silver of old age, causing Katherine to think for one irrational moment that they might be alternate color individuals, the "shiny" creatures that so many trainers sought after. She was proven wrong by the tips of the Ninetale's tails, which retained their fiery hue despite their age. The pair, a male and a female whom Katherine assumed were mates, looked up to her with clouded red eyes. Though their vision seemed to be fading, they focused their gaze on Jeremy almost immediately. He leapt down from Katherine's shoulder, the long strand of fur that he held clutched in his forepaw glistening in the sunlight. He set it down in front of him, and the female Ninetales seemed at first to take interest in it, but then dismissed it and fixed her gaze back on Jeremy.

"Taaales. Ninetalesss. Talesnine?" she asked softly.

Jeremy began to speak in Pokemon, and Katherine assumed that he was probably recounting his whole story over again. The triad of Pokemon were soon engaged in conversation and Katherine, figuring that she had a bit of time before she would be needed to speak again, stepped away to have a look at the miniature lake.

She leaned out and gazed into the water with interest, then drew back in alarm. While she assumed that the pond would be fairly shallow, she saw instead unfathomable depths stretched out before her, deeper even than the night sky. Though it unsettled her, she seemed instinctively drawn to it, and soon found herself gazing into its depths again. A ripple passed across the water, and suddenly it seemed to her that she saw it to be full of flames, burning a pure and steady whitish color. Fascinated, Katherine continued to watch as the flames transformed themselves into flowers, spiky petals a fiery red. They swayed in the wind, dancing as if they were still flames. But then there came on the breeze a tongue of flame. Not like the flames before, this was a greedy, horrible conflagration. It reached out to the flowers with hungry claws, charring them black wherever it touched the fine petals. The fire consumed the surreal flowerbed, eating closer and closer to its heart until finally there was just a single plant left. It wilted in the terrible heat, the flames around it looming higher and higher, its petals curling in upon themselves.

Katherine drew back uncertainly and glanced around as if to assure herself that all about her was normal. The pair of Ninetales were listening, rapt, to Jeremy's story. The sun shone cheerily in the sky, casting reassurance down in its heat and light. Katherine walked back to the three Pokemon, who seemed to be coming to the conclusion of their discussion.

Jeremy had stopped talking. The two Ninetales were discussing something between themselves, heads close together. They looked up as Katherine approached. "Everything going along all right here?" she asked Jeremy.

"Yes," Jeremy replied with a grin. "You haven't been properly introduced, though, have you? This is Ailrianor." The male Ninetales gave a small bow of sorts and Katherine, uncertain of what to do, returned it. "And this is his mate, Lokynou," Jeremy continued. The female bowed, and Katherine returned the gesture. "And this, of course, is Katherine," Jeremy told the Ninetales, in English so that Katherine understood. The Ninetales nodded. "Ailrianor and Lokynou want to help me," Jeremy told Katherine, smiling broadly. "They are not sure how exactly to do that yet, but they're working on it. For now, they're letting us stay with them in their mountain. They'll feed us and everything."

"Taales. Talesninetales taaales," the male Ninetales interrupted, his eyes on Katherine.

"Oh," Jeremy replied. "Uh, Ailrianor wants to know if there is something that you wish to ask them now.

Katherine immediately relplied, "What are all of the will-o'-the-wisps here for? And what's with this funky pool?"

The Ninetales looked at each other as though at a loss for words, then some sort of signal passed between them and Lokynou nodded slightly. Turning to Katherine, she explained, "Aaales, nine. Niiine tales. Taletalesninetales. Talesninetales. Tales."

"The pool that you refer to is a mysterious one. Supposedly, it reflects scenes that represent something vitally important to the one who gazes into it. Not that it's at all straightforward about what it means, of course. As for the will-o'-the-wisps, well, that's a matter better discussed over a meal. Lokynou says that you are welcome to dine with them this night."

Katherine looked up in surprise to realize that the day was indeed waning. Shadows were beginning to creep across the ground, the sunlight taking on the golden quality of late afternoon. "That would be wonderful," Katherine replied graciously.

Ailrianor nodded, satisfied, and then indicated that Jeremy and Katherine should follow him back into the mountain. They began to walk around the lake. As she passed the still waters, however, Katherine couldn't resist looking into its depths once more. The burning field and the lone flower were still there, but now Katherine fancied that she saw eyes in the fire, staring back at her as though they were the ones looking into the pool and she the image reflected in it. She drew her gaze away, but as she did so she was gripped by a moment of pure terror, ice suffusing her veins, the beating of her heat drowning out all other sounds.

She backed away from the pool. "Are you okay, Katherine?" Jeremy asked with concern. He and the Ninetales had stopped some distance away, looking back at her. The moment passed, and once Katherine had regained control of her labored breathing she was quick to respond.

"Yes I'm fine," she replied, even having the fortitude to effect a weak chuckle, though it came out as more of a squeak, "Just someone walking across my grave, I guess.


	15. The Discovery

Author's Notes: Thanks for reviewing and happy Halloween! And oh yes, foreshadowing is one of my favorite literary devices. It's great for cliffhangers.

**Chapter 15: The Discovery**

As planned, the friends reconvened at Seth's tree that next afternoon. First to arrive was Trevor, who undulated over to it, his yellow eyes scanning its upper branches. Seeing no sign of the Spearow, he hissed in irritation.

Satoran appeared next, skittering across the open space between bushes and trees until he reached the shadow of the tree's proud branches. He greeted Trevor in his soft voice and the Ekans replied with a hissed greeting. It was not long before Jess trundled out of the bushes, walking clumsily on her short legs.

"Where's Seth?" she chirped as she finally reached the pair of waiting Pokemon.

"Off sleeping somewhere, no doubt," Trevor growled exasperatedly. "He probably forgot all about the meeting."

"Who knows, with Seth?" Satoran chirred. "He's smarter than he lets on. I would not be surprised to hear that he was up to no good, as usual."

Jess shrugged as best she could and plopped down in the sparse grass.

As usual, Malkendro arrived without warning, a shadow ghosting out of the bushes and over to the assembled Pokemon. He took his seat in his normal stony silence. His friends were all used to it and took no offense when he offered them no greeting. "Looks like we're just waiting for one person, then," Trevor observed, glaring accusingly up into the tree branches.

"We should probably just begin without Seth," Satoran suggested. "If he hasn't shown his face here by now it is unlikely that he'll do so later."

"Yes, let's get started," Jess agreed eagerly.

"Very well," Trevor acquiesced. "What did you find out from Delrairon, Satoran?"

"About as much as you thought that I would, Trevor," Satoran admitted. "He spoke in riddles, as always. He seemed to suggest that there was nothing that we could do to lift the curse from the island, but at the same time, he seemed to feel that it was important we protect the meadow. He said that it was imperative that it not disappear."

If Trevor had eyebrows, they'd probably be raised. "Disappear?" he asked incredulously.

Satoran nodded. "That is what he said. I know it doesn't make any sense. How can an entire meadow just evaporate? Other than that, he seemed to be talking about some other person, Sasoliar or something..."

Malkendro's ears perked up. "Sasoliar?" he growled.

The rest of the group stared at him. Malkendro rarely spoke except to point out something wrong with what another person had said.

"Yes...yes, I believe that was the name," Satoran replied, now unsure of himself. "He said something about how she was important because the field gave her power."

"Do you know something about this, Malkendro?" Trevor asked sharply.

The Houndour appeared to hesitate for a second. "No," he growled, and his expression dared anyone to try to get anything else out of him.

"I thought that perhaps we might take the time to inspect the meadow, see what we can learn about it. Maybe we'll be able to see this mysterious "Sasoliar" and learn more about them," Satoran continued.

"That sounds reasonable," Jess agreed.

"There's no time for that," Malkendro growled direly. Once again, his companions were struck dumb. This was incredibly talkative for the dark-type who was usually stubbornly reticent. "Don't you remember my assignment?" he asked with annoyance.

"Oh, yes!" Jess cried. "What did you see?"

"The situation is far more pressing than we assumed," Malkendro growled. "The Mistress has called upon the aid of a Gengar to find Jeremy. I have no doubt that he will soon succeed; Gengars are not governed by the same laws as we mortal creatures, and they can traverse the continent in the bat of an eyelash."

"That is indeed grim news," Satoran admitted.

"Oh, dear," Jess moaned. "What do we do?"

At first no one seemed to have any idea. Then Trevor suggested that they "confront the Mistress and try to defeat her."

This insane idea naturally brought on a tidal wave of scornful comments and a storm of other suggestions. Soon a heated discussion was underway. Satoran, as always, remained quiet and thoughtful, weighing each option carefully. When he thought he had the answer, he did his best to calm the other members of the circle, who were thoroughly embroiled in the debate.

"Wait, wait, I think that I have just the idea," he announced. "Here is what we must do..."

----

"Are you sure about this?" Seth growled at his companion.

"Of course I'm sure," sniffed the Murkrow, a character almost as untidy as Seth himself. His coal-black feathers stood out at odd angles, and occasionally a vehement gesture would cause one to give up the ghost and drift slowly towards the ground.

"You had better be. Because if this is another one of your stupid jokes..." Seth threatened.

"Me? Joke?" the Murkrow squawked, extremely indignant. "I never joke! I am always dead serious."

"Emphasis on "dead,"" Seth grumbled to himself. "Fine then," he said aloud. "What are we waiting for?"

"For your majesty's leave to continue, of course," the Murkrow sneered in response.

"Get a move on, Allekendro," Seth snarled in exasperation. "Where do we enter?"

"There," Allekendro replied, back to business. He extended a wing and pointed it in the general direction of the large mansion that lay below them. The pair were perched in the upper branches of an ancient oak tree, one of only two trees on the entire cliff. It reared up over even the mansion's three stories, ancient beyond measure.

"Oh, big help," Seth said, voice dripping sarcasm. He was wary in the openness of the tree, used to being sheltered by the other trees that grew in the forest. Of course, he hadn't always been all too comfortable hanging out in a tree all day, but that was something that he had adjusted to. The constant breeze that whipped the empty plateau buffeted his unkempt feathers and he tightened his grip on the tree branch.

"There's a hole in the roof near the far right corner," Allekendro elaborated. "Follow me." He leapt off of the branch, black wings opening. He beat them heavily, laboring against the wind and his own weight. Black feathers spiraled away from his stubby wings. Seth followed suit, though his flapping was far more frantic. By the time he and Allekendro had reached the aperture he was thoroughly exhausted and issuing a steady stream of mental curses.

The two birds peered down into the dark hole that yawned in the roof. They had to be careful of their footing, as the shingles were rotting away and treacherous. "You first," Seth told Allekendro.

"As you wish," the Murkrow replied with a shrug and, with a hop forward, disappeared into the hole. Seth listened intently, smiling when he heard a heavy thud that indicated a less-than graceful landing somewhere below. "It's safe enough," came Allekendro's disembodied voice from far below.

Taking heart, Seth too jumped into the hole, flapping madly in order to slow his descent. He wasn't prepared for the sudden appearance of the floorboards directly beneath him and managed a landing only slightly more graceful than Allekendros. He might have expressed this fact with an oath, but found the air knocked from his small lungs.

Upon his recovery, he stared around at the room in which he now found himself. It was dank and smelled of rot and age. Allekendro was looking about him with interest, his red eyes accustomed to such places. A window at the far end of the long room let in a relecutant beam of sunlight, illuminating a multitude of dust particles that swirled and eddied under its scrutiny.

"The attic?" Seth asked.

Allekendro nodded. "Yes. There should be a trap door somewhere over this way..." The two birds searched along the creaking wooden floor until they found an old-fashioned ring handle amongst the thick layer of dust on the floor. With a considerable amount of heaving and swearing, the pair managed to pull the trap door open, revealing a hall beneath them. Once again they descended, landing in the considerably better-lit corridor.

"What exactly are we looking for here?" Seth asked Allekendro as he stared around himself. The pair's journey through the house had already marked them; Allekendro's coal black had turned to a dust gray, and Seth had the look of a bedraggled seagull dipped in flour.

"Anything interesting," Allekendro replied absently. "Maybe some sort of treasure."

"May as well get searching. Who knows when _she_'s gonna be back," Seth pointed out. The pair set out for a tour of the old mansion. They found it to be a spectacle of ruined opulence. Tapestries rotted on walls; chandeliers were no longer recognizable underneath the thick layer of cobwebs that had been spun across them. The rich rugs beneath the Pokemons' feet had begun to take on the color of the floorboards that they lay upon, and each step upon them sent up a mushroom cloud of dust, causing the pair to choke and sneeze.

Still, there were some treasures to be had. Allekendro soon acquired a ring set with a red stone that Seth speculated might be a ruby and an antique pocket watch. Nothing particularly interested the Spearow, who figured that with his flying ability he wouldn't be able to carry anything back with him anyway. He didn't really know why he had agreed to go along with Allekendro, thus skipping the meeting with his friends, but he had always been fascinated by the old mansion and had yearned to see its interior.

The end of their adventure was nearing as Seth pushed aside the door to an old closet. The dust here, though still thick, was not nearly as bad as it had been in other areas. Something gleamed from the far side of the room and Seth pushed his way inside. "Oi! Allekendro! Get over here!" he yelled.

The Murkrow obligingly aborted his study of a vase that had fallen and smashed upon the floor and hopped into the closet behind Seth. The Spearow had crossed the closet space in a trance, his eyes on irregularly shaped objects on a shelf on the far wall.

"They're evolution stones," Seth breathed, eyes widening with greed and wonder. Indeed, nestled amongst geodes and fossils sat the rare and precious evolution stones, still glinting despite the dust that covered them.

"Mmm," Allekendro replied. He was inspecting an odd object on the floor. There were many of them scattered about. Seth had apparently not noticed them as he waltzed into the closet. "Look at these things on the floor, Seth," he called, picking up the one before him and blowing the dust away from it.

He was surprised to find that it was a Great Ball, or at least what he assumed was a Great Ball. He had lived his entire life on the island, and so had heard of such devices only in stories from the older, more worldly Pokemon now trapped there and the captive trainers. It was certainly some sort of Pokeball and had a blue and red top. It was also open. A more experienced eye might have been somewhat surprised to see that the intricate devices within it had apparently melted, but to Allekendro it appeared perfectly normal. He had only time to note that there was a label affixed to the top of it before a horrible noise split the air.

It was somewhere between a shriek of rage and a wail of lament, and it made every feather on Allekendro's scruffy body stand straight out in protest. "Seth!" he yelled, certain that some sort of horrible fate had befallen his companion, despite the fact that the Spearow was a mere two feet or so away. He hurriedly dropped the Great Ball and dashed over to see what was the matter.

The Great Ball fell back to the floor with a muffled clack. The peeling label on its top, yellowed though it was, was perfectly legible to someone who, unlike Allekendro, could read. Printed on the black label in white block letters were the words "Property of: SETH CONNORS."


	16. The Capture

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reviewing! This chapter is unusual, as it centers around my theory concerning how Pokeballs work. I tried to present it in a way that wouldn't be boring, as it is important to the rest of the story and I had to fit it in here somehow.

As for the theory itself, I've done my best to make it plausible and as scientifically sound as possible. That being said, the world of Pokemon is a rather magical place, so there naturally must be some elements chalked up to that.

Please let me know what you think of the theory and any major problems that you might see with it. I sort of need to know, as it will become rather important later in the fanfic.

Also, Ailrianor does a lot of talking in this chapter, including some paragraphs of text. I found it very time-consuming and a bit pointless to have an entire paragraph of him talking in his speech followed by Jeremy translated, so for long sections what he is saying is denoted by double colons like ::this::. Basically, that means "Ailrianor said something and this is what Jeremy translated it as." And if you think that Ailrianor is a bit smart for a Ninetales, it's because he is. He has his own story, but it's quite long and a bit irrelevant.

Chapter 16: The Capture 

Ailrianor and Lokynou led Jeremy and Katherine deep within the mountain, through winding passages and quiet corridors. They came finally to an empty room branching off of the main hallway. "Tales ninetales," Ailrianor said.

"This is our room," Jeremy translated. Katherine ducked in. She was disappointed to find that it was nearly as barren as the small room that the pair had been given while waiting for the council to decide if it was ready to see them. This one had a window, however, and a small pile of long dry grass in one corner which Katherine assumed passed for a bed.

"Niine. Tales tales," Lokynou added.

"They'll come to get us when it's time for dinner," Jeremy explained.

"Oh, thank you," Katherine replied. Lokynou nodded and she and her mate slipped away down the hall, leaving Katherine and Jeremy alone with the will-o'-the-wisps that danced near the ceiling.

"A little sparse, isn't it?" asked Katherine, looking around the room again with disappointment.

"What need does a Pokemon have for furniture?" Jeremy replied, darting forward to sit on the window sill. He seemed to have a tendency to do that, Katherine noted distractedly. "Why, this might even be one of their best rooms. It has a window, after all, and a bed."

Katherine sighed and flopped down on the pile of grass, the "bed," and stared up at the ceiling moodily. She couldn't help but think again of the strange vision she'd had while staring into the pool at the top of the mountain. The thought sent shivers down her spine.

She shifted uncomfortably on top of the grasses, which rustled and crunched beneath her weight. She worried at first about the insect life usually associated with such accommodations, but eventually dismissed the thought. The Ninetales' mountain, from what she had seen of it so far, was very clean and well-kept. This grass was probably fresh and didn't have any more of an ecosystem associated with it than that in a typical mattress.

Eventually she stood up and wandered over to the window. Peering out of it, she saw that the sun was setting, its fiery radiance dimming as it sank beneath the horizon. The mountains in the distance were painted a rosy hue, the ones nearer to her already clothed in darkness. She caught a glimpse of Blackthorn City between two of the mountains, its lights just beginning to go on. How small and insignificant it seemed, compared to the vastness of the wild and untamed Thorn range. Humans, she thought, were not really as big a deal as they made themselves out to be.

Some time later Jeremy and Katherine were summoned to dinner. Ailrianor and Lokynou escorted them into a long gallery near the heart of the mountain. Here the entire population had gathered, and Katherine marveled at its size. There must have been at least three hundred Vulpix and Ninetales milling about the large chamber. The Pokemon had no more need of tables or utensils than they did of fireplaces and lamps, and so each group simply selected a spot in which to sit or lie down and awaited their meal. Katherine and Jeremy found them seated between Ailrianor and Lokynou as the food began to be passed around.

Katherine felt rather squeamish when she discovered that the main course was Pidgey, which most of the Ninetales ate raw. While it was true that Pokemon were occasionally used by humans as food (hence the Tauros steak,) most dinner fare came from mundane, domesticated animals. Still, she didn't have anything else to eat and was loathe to seem impolite in front of the two ancient Ninetales. She merely accepted her bird, which Ailrianor had amiably roasted for her, and was thankful that Pidgeot was blissfully unaware in his Pokeball at her belt.

The Pidgeys were supplemented by berries, the quintessential staple of any Pokemon's diet. Few berry trees would grow in the harsh northern mountains, but there seemed to be plenty for all. Katherine eagerly ate these; they were really quite delicious and gave her an excuse to refuse Lokynou's offering of a second Pidgey.

Once it seemed that most of the serious eating had been accomplished and dinner had faded away to contented nibbling of berries, Ailrianor began to speak to Katherine, who tried valiantly to ignore the blood and occasional feather yet lingering on his muzzle. "Taaales. Tale nine talesninetales."

"I will now answer your question regarding the will-o'-the-wisps," Jeremy translated.

::They are truly a mystery. We have only this main theory, and it far from provides all of the answers. But I must begin at the beginning. Are you aware of how a Pokeball works?::

Katherine shook her head slowly. The amazing devices at her belt were really a mystery to her. All that she particularly cared to know about them was that they worked. She had an irritated impression that the elder Ninetales was evading her question by giving her a treatise on the function of a Pokeball.

::How odd humans are! Even I, a mere Pokemon, know of their function. It is knowledge that we Pokemon have a duty to learn, for it is, after all, one of our greatest adversaries. I have lived for many, many years, and to me, the Pokeball is a rather newfangled contraption. In the old days, Pokemon trainers carried large bells inscribed with magical symbols with which to capture their quarries. But I digress.::

::Humans say that we Pokemon are far less stable than other "mundane" creatures. Our very atoms are primed for radical changes, and such instability is largely the source of our elemental powers.::

::Not only that, but it is said that our souls are bound more loosely to our physical forms than that of other creatures. It is these two factors that allow a Pokemon to become captured in a Pokeball. No human could survive capture in such a device; their body would be destroyed by the process and they would perish.::

_Pleasant thought, that,_ Katherine thought sarcastically. She had no idea where this conversation was going.

::When a Pokeball captures a Pokemon, it emits a ray of particles that disrupt the atoms in the target's body. This causes them to break down, converting a great deal of a Pokemon's mass into pure energy. This is what allows Pokemon to be stored in a Pokeball, which is much smaller than its body.::

::The energy produced in this way is drawn up into the Pokeball through the use of energy-absorbing metals in its interior. Additional products of this reaction, mainly stray particles, or radiation, are also collected and drawn into the ball's interior. This allows the conversion process of a fission reaction without all of the mess and inconvenience of a nuclear explosion. A containment field within the Pokeball is then activated, which prevents the escape of the particles and energy generated by the capture process.::

_Probably a good thing, _Katherine thought, _or else we'd all end up with horrible diseases from being exposed to radiation from our Pokemon all of the time._

::At this point, the Pokemon struggles to break free of the Pokeball. You see, this is where the second important difference comes into play; Pokemon retain their conscious soul even when deprived of many of the things that constitute a physical "body." We are perhaps more closely linked to the energy that courses through us than to any physical vessel. We therefore are consciously able to fight the capture process. A Pokemon will struggle against the containment field within the Pokeball; if its constraints can be broken, then we have the power to return our atoms to their original state.::

"Wait, wait," Katherine interrupted skeptically. "You just go ahead and tell your atoms, "Okay, let's all get back together now" or something? That's impossible!"

::Not so. The Pokeball captures and contains all energy and by-products of the reaction, yes? The reaction produced the energy, and by expending it again, it is possible to force the atoms back together and re-form the Pokemon's physical body. If the containment field is breached, the Pokeball will automatically open to allow the Pokemon to escape rather than be crushed in the tiny space.::

"Okayy..." Katherine replied, unsure whether or not to buy it.

::The containment field cannot sustain itself, being powered by a battery implanted in the Pokeball upon its manufacture. It merely prevents the Pokemon from escaping while a second process takes place. A small amount of energy created during the reaction is siphoned off and stored in a special mechanism in the Pokeball's interior. With that energy goes a small piece of the Pokemon's soul. When this task is accomplished, the Pokemon has run out of time to escape. The Pokeball expels all air from its interior, creating a vacuum, and the containment field dissipates. This is the click or clunk that you hear when your Pokeball ceases to shake and the locks shut. Essentially, it has downloaded a small part of the Pokemon's being and stored it within its circuitry.:;

"So, the Pokeball steals some of a Pokemon's soul in order to gain control of it?" Katherine asked incredulously. "That's horrible!"

Ailrianor shrugged. ::It is not truly so terrible. All it does is ensure that the Pokemon can be recalled to the Pokeball. Otherwise, any time that you wished to recall a Pokemon you would have to essentially recapture it, and a Pokemon could run away at any time. A Pokemon cannot resist the call of its own soul, however, and therefore does not fight whenever it is returned to the Pokeball.::

"Wasn't this all supposed to be leading up to what the will-o'-wisps are?" Katherine asked, growing exasperated.

::Have patience. We are nearly there. The will-o'-wisps, then, we believe to be the wayward souls of Pokemon that have been separated from their physical form.::

"How could that happen?" Katherine asked with interest.

::I do not know. Somehow, it might be possible to manipulate a Pokeball so that it would expend its own supply of energy in order to recreate a Pokemon upon its release, rather than re-using the Pokemon's own energy. This would recreate the Pokemon's physical form, but it would essentially be a soulless creature, without thought or heart. The Pokeball would be ruined, no longer able to generate the disruption ray that allows Pokemon to be converted into energy and no longer able to hold the small sliver of the Pokemon's soul in its grasp. The remaining energy, the Pokemon's soul, would forcefully exit the device, probably destroying it in the process. It would be without form to govern it, and so be left to drift around the world without guide or purpose.::

"So you're saying that somehow all of these little will-o'-the-wisps are really the wayward souls of Pokemon that have somehow been separated from their bodies? It seems a bit far-fetched," Katherine said after a minute.

Ailrianor shrugged. ::As I said, it is only a speculation. We can never truly know what the will-o'-the-wisps are, or why they congregate here. But it is growing late. I am sure that you would like to retire, and my mate and I need to discuss how to handle your problem. I will contact you in the morning.::

Katherine nodded, and Ailrianor and Lykonou departed, their magnificent tails sweeping along behind them. Jeremy gazed after the departing pair uncertainly.

"You remember how to get back to our room?" Katherine asked him. She hadn't really been paying attention as the Ninetales ferried them to and from their temporary home.

"Yeah," Jeremy replied. "Follow me."

He dutifully led Katherine back to their quarters, but she could tell that the rodent had something on his mind. He wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing, allowing his four feet to guide him back to the room. When they reached it, he announced that he was feeling restless and that he would be taking a walk before retiring.

"I'll be back in a while. Don't worry about me," he reassured Katherine, who shrugged and entered the room. Another smaller pile of grass had been added for Jeremy. She sighed and sat down on hers, which scrunched beneath her weight. She sincerely doubted her ability to get to sleep on one of these, but figured that she might as well give it a try. Lying back down on the scratchy bed, she was at first annoyed by the numerous small bits that poked into her from every angle, but the subtle scent exuded by the dried grasses slowly soothed her. That, and the fact that the mysterious presence that had haunted her previous slumber seemed to have turned its attention elsewhere, contributed to the ease with which Katherine fell asleep.

----

Jeremy wandered the mountain's corridors aimlessly, thoughts of great magnitude churning in his small mind. He met few Pokemon in the halls, most of the mountain's inhabitants having retired to their rooms or reported outside for night watch. The Rattata would periodically gaze up at the mysterious lights circling overhead.

He continued in this fashion for some time until one time when he looked up to the ceiling he saw a will-o'-the-wisp that seemed to stand out from all of the others. It was no different in appearance or movement, but for some reason he felt strangely drawn to it. He followed it curiously as it swirled along in the river of ghostly lights. It skipped ahead of him, bobbing and weaving away.

Jeremy began to run awkwardly, his head craned upwards, following the odd will-o'-the-wisp. A merry chase ensued, the pursued always one step ahead of the pursuer, ducking and weaving in a purely haphazard pattern but always leading the Rattata onward. Jeremy was soon dashing after it, thinking of nothing else. "Wait! Come back!" he yelled at it, not entirely sure why.

The will-o'-the-wisp darted around a corner and into an empty room. Here it promptly vanished, snuffed out in an instant. Jeremy darted into the room and stared around wildly. He caught no sight of the strange ball of flame and let out an exasperated sigh. He began to think of how silly he had been, chasing after a little ball of flame. He was about to turn and exit the room when he noticed that the lights suddenly went out.

All throughout the mountain, the will-o'-the-wisps fled. Their pale glow left the rooms and corridors throughout the entire complex, leaving a suddenly unknown and terrible darkness in their place. The Vulpix and Ninetales still awake were shocked when night fell in an instant. Lokynou's head jerked up. "Taaaaales!" she yelped.

Jeremy was the first to feel the sinister presence that accompanied the darkness. He cowered against the wall of the chamber, whimpering softly. A great wave of terror swept up to engulf him. With it there came a deadly smile, its perfectly straight teeth glowing slightly in the absence of light. Following that came two luminous eyes that burned with inner fire. The darkness seemed to take form around them, a suggestion of a shadowy figure not distinguishable from the area around it by the physical eye but rather by the inner one.

"Hello, little Jeremy," came an eerie voice. It seemed to come from all directions at once, its hollow tone sending shivers down Jeremy's spine. His fur bristled and he snarled defiantly.

The indistinct figure laughed then, a horrible cackling that quivered throughout the room in waves of chilly mirth. "A feisty little fellow you are," it admitted. The hazy figure--Jeremy now recognized it to be a Gengar--moved nearer, extending its short arms towards him. He tried to dart around the corner and out into the hall, but he found himself frozen in place by sheer terror as the ghost moved ever nearer.

If Jeremy had been a real Ratatta, the ghostly Pokemon would have been unable to harm him. Normal-type Pokemon bear an innate resistance to the abilities of ghost-type Pokemon. Jeremy, however, was not a real Rattata. The Gengar reached through the aspect of a Rattata that had been cast over him and seized his soul within. He tugged on this, pulling it with him as he departed the mortal plane once more and dragging Jeremy's body along with it.

Jeremy had never before experienced such terror. He was immersed in the dead world, the region inhabited by ghosts and creatures of nightmare. It was cold, the sort of cold that pierces any attempt at lessening its chill, and there were no sounds at all, merely the paralyzing silence of vast empty spaces beyond comprehension. It was dark, but not the peaceful night that descended over the mortal world. The darkness here was alive, a tortured entity that constantly writhed across the entire plane. Jeremy opened his mouth to scream but found himself to be in an empty vacuum. Choking darkness filled his throat as he tried in vain to fill his lungs with air. There was none, and his head pounded. His vision must have dimmed as well, but he could not tell, for nothing flew before it that allowed him to compare it to what it was before. Soon, he sank down into the darkness within himself and knew no more.

----

Grottlis was extremely pleased with himself as he dragged the small, struggling soul across the void of eternity that was his own realm. The girl, this human's companion had inadvertently drawn him to her as she gazed into the pool in the Ninetale's mountain. For Grottlis had expected that she would be traveling there and was waiting on the other side for her to peer in and confirm his suspicions.

He had been right, and he had that very night set out to capture the wayward human that was the source of Sasoliar's troubles, or so she assumed. He had been briefly annoyed by the bright souls that constantly circled about the mountain, blocking his passage out of the dead plane, but he had overcome them and sent them fleeing to their own corner of the world.

Grottlis burst out once more into the mortal plane at his destination, the uncharted island of Sasoliar. He unceremoniously dropped the unconscious Rattata to the sand of the beach and glanced around to see if anyone else was there. Sasoliar had apparently been delayed for some reason, as she was not yet there. The Gengar, bored, spoke to the comatose Rattata as he awaited the Ninetales' appearance.

"You are far more of a hindrance than you know, Jeremy," he mused aloud. "Why, if you had been allowed to roam about free, who knows what might have happened? Someone might even have discovered the truth."

The Gengar chuckled uneasily to himself as he made the last statement, looking thoughtfully up to the sliver of moon above him. In its silver radiance he saw the silver fur of the elder Ninetales, and that gave even the fearless Gengar an uneasy feeling. The truth...


	17. The Realization

Author's Notes: Well, it looks like so far my little Pokeball theory has gotten mixed reviews. Thanks for telling me what you thought about that, by the way. Whatever your position, this chapter is back into the mysterious element rather than the scientific one. We're starting to hit the home stretch for this 'fic, so hopefully you should be starting to come up with some of your own ideas about just what, as Grottlis so eloquently puts it, "the truth" might be here.

Chapter 17: The Realization 

Trevor was enjoying himself immensely. He was in the final stretch of a marathon, leading the pack as they rounded the final bend. He strained every muscle, feet pounding the track as he slowly pulled out ahead of his competition. At last, he threw himself across the finish line, feeling the winning tape give way as he ran through it. He was across, the other runners pounding across the line in a mob behind him. Though his every muscle burned with fatigue, he was elated as he slowed down, enjoying the wild cheers of the crowd. A reporter eagerly approached him from the sidelines as he came to a halt, trailing his camera crew posse behind him. Trevor grinned and pushed his hair out of his sweat-soaked face, preparing to appear before the entire Kanto region on national television.

The reporter opened his mouth and asked the first question. "Wake up, Trevor!"

"Huh?" Trevor replied as the scene started to go fuzzy for some reason, happiness slowly ebbing away.

The reporter's inane smile remained fixed on his face. His mouth didn't move. "Wake UP, Trevor!" he shouted in Trevor's ear. But...Trevor didn't have ears, did he?

The scene melted away in a tide of consciousness that swept away the happy dream. _You don't have ears,_ Trevor reminded himself. _Nor do you have legs for running marathons. You're an Ekans, remember?_

Resentfully Trevor opened one red eye to discover who had seen fit to drag him so rudely from his fantasies. At first he felt a wild surge of fear as he felt himself closed in on all sides by an unyielding barrier, claustrophobia bubbling up until he realized that, of course, he was in his burrow. The entryway was apparently being blocked by some object, as no light or fresh air streamed in through it. The object barked, "Get up! We've got work to do?"

"Whuh...Seth?" Trevor groaned, head fuzzy and muddled. "What the heck are you doing here at this hour...or whatever that may be."

"It doesn't matter what time it is!" Seth snapped. "We need to act quickly. Come on, up!"

The Spearow withdrew his head from the burrow's mouth, allowing a breath of cool night air and moonlight to waft into the earthy burrow. Trevor tried to rouse himself more fully as he slowly coiled his way out of his burrow and into the moonlit forest, sinuous body dragging itself along the ground. Trevor glared accusingly at Seth, sure that he had been awoken on some fool's errand. His surety melted away as he saw Seth. The Spearow was glaring right back at Trevor, grim determination evident in every unkempt feather.

"What's this all about, Seth?" Trevor snapped. "Why weren't you at the meeting today?"

"I was busy," Seth replied. "Allekendro and I had ourselves a look around the Mistress' mansion."

"_What?_" Trevor hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"Maybe. It worked, whatever the case. We got in when she wasn't there. And we found..._this_."

Seth picked up something that had been lying on the ground near his short talons. He dropped it in front of Trevor, who squinted at it curiously. The pale moonlight washed out colors, making it difficult for him to make out anything beyond the shape of the object. After several seconds he realized what it was, however. "A Great Ball? And it's open."

"Not just _any_ Great Ball," Seth snarled. "_My _Great Ball. It has my name on it."

Trevor turned the Great Ball over with his tail and saw that Seth spoke truly. An old peeling label clearly identified it as belonging to one "Seth Connors." It wasn't this that caught his eye, but the interior of the device, which had been melted, the metal components now only shapeless lumps and bubbles that stood out in stark black and white in the moonlight. "What happened to it?" Trevor asked himself in wonder and horror.

"What happened?" Seth hissed, apparently having overheard Trevor's conversation with himself. "I'll tell you what happened! The Pokemon that was in there died!"

"Died?" Trevor repeated uncertainly. "I dunno, Seth. I mean, maybe it just got released or something..."

"Bull, Trevor!" Seth snarled, keeping his voice low. "That Pokemon died. Not just died, it was murdered. That bitch murdered our Pokemon! All of them!"

"Now, Seth, you don't have any proof. If this Pokemon really died, then it's entirely possible that it did so for natural reasons." His excuse didn't sound very convincing, even to his ears. But he didn't really want to believe that...that the Mistress had killed all of the trainers' Pokemon. How could she? She was a Pokemon herself, after all. Pokemon didn't like killing each other.

"Natural causes?" Seth scoffed. "Whatever, Trevor. But if you really need more concrete "proof"..." he reached down beside him and picked something else up and dropped it in front of Trevor. It landed with a thud that was echoed in the Ekans' ringing head. It seemed as though he was watching the scene from far away on a hazy television. He felt strangely numb and detached.

He looked down at the object lying in the grass, hidden by the shadow of a bare tree branch, then glanced back up at Seth. The Spearow was silhouetted against the cold moon, expression indiscernible. Trevor didn't really want to look at what it was that was lying innocently in the sparse grass nearby. Didn't want to make it true. But he did look, hooking the whatever-it-was on the rattle at the end of his tail and bringing it out into the moonlight.

It was a Premier Ball, a silvery white banded with bright red. Like Seth's, it was open, innards grotesquely profaned. There was a sticker on it, a sticker that was merely a dark blot in the surreal light but whose shape was unmistakable. A Dratini...

Further realizations were drowned out by an icy chill that seemed to spread all along Trevor's long body until it finally reached his brain, leaving him frozen in place, able only to stare at the sticker for the space of ten heartbeats that were increasing in frequency. It seemed then that his red irises must be constricting, oozing across his pupils, pulling a red curtain over his field of vision. He abruptly thawed, a sudden spasm sending the terrible object spinning away behind him into the undergrowth. Trevor didn't care. Indeed, he did not even notice.

He was yelling, screaming at Seth, still unable to see anything beyond the terrible image that had been burned into his retinas. "It's not true!" he shrieked. "You're lying! She can't be dead!" He lunged blindly at Seth and was rewarded by a violent oath and a mouthful of feathers as the Spearow darted aside, unprepared. He coiled back into a ready position, vision beginning to clear. He locked his gaze on to the Spearow. "You...you! You did this! Where is she? What did you do with her?" He darted forward again, but Seth had been prepared and his head soared through empty air. There came a sudden blow from the side, a buffet by a short wing. The blow sent him reeling, his long body sprawled out across the ground. He drew himself back up and hissed, only to be rewarded with another buffet.

"Pull yerself together!" Seth snarled. "And keep yer voice down! Get a grip, Trevor!"

Trevor's vision was again obscured. He panted heavily, watching as scenes played before his inner eye.

A carnival, where the normally somber streets of Rustboro had been decked out with balloons and streamers. At the grandstand a rotund announcer for the Devon corporation was announcing the winners of the raffle. A premier ball sat next to him on a pedestal. He squinted his piggy eyes at the slip of paper, mopping his bald head with a handkerchief. "And the winning number is 218!" he bellowed into the megaphone. "218! Number 218! Please step forward to claim your prize!"...

"Finish it with Twister, Dratini!" Trevor yelled excitedly to the blue-gray dragon Pokemon.

"Teeeni!" Dratini squealed in reply, coiling its serpentine body into a series of rapid gyrations, sending a cyclone imbued with draconic energy spiraling towards the ceiling. Dratini released the pillar of destruction towards the Noespass, and it coiled itself around him, spinning him wildly around and around. It plucked pebbles from the gym's floor and added them to its fury, pummeling him and sending small chips of his rocky hide flying, only to have them pelt him again as they, too, were caught in the wild Twister.

The attack dissipated, leaving the Nosepass still spinning in place. He snapped to a halt, nose pointing north. For a second, it seemed that he was perfectly all right, but then he slowly began to tip forward, bright red nose slamming into the floor. Roxanne grudgingly recalled him as slowly, inexorably, his magnetic nose began to pull him north, sending inching along the floor in that direction. "Congratulations, Trevor," she said as cheerfully as she could, "You've earned the Stone Badge..."

The bright white light dissipated from the sleek, elegant Pokemon. It looked up at Trevor with huge blue eyes. "Dragonaiiir...."

"Now you see, don't you?" Seth croaked. Trevor was hurled back to the present abruptly at the sound of the Spearow's voice. He raised his heavy head and was startled to see that Seth had his bowed as well. The Spearow coughed and looked up. "You see what we have to do?"

"We have to get rid of her," Trevor snarled, surprised to find that his face was wet with something. Funny, he didn't recall that it had been raining. "She must pay for what she's done to us. And to our Pokemon."

Seth nodded fiercely. "And we have to do it soon. Maybe we can take the island back before she recaptures Jeremy."

Abruptly, a recent memory surfaced in Trevor's rattled brain. He frowned. "We were planning something this afternoon..." his brow wrinkled in thought, then he shook his head. "No, it won't work. It's too slow. We need to act now!"

"What do we do?" Seth asked eagerly. He was used to looking to Trevor for leadership.

"First, we must spread the word. The other trainers will join us, and so will the other Pokemon on the island. When they hear this, there will be no more hemming and hawing over what we should do. They will aid us, and we will finally be free."

Seth laughed bitterly. "Free. After all of these years..." he opened his stubby wings and began to beat them frantically, slowly rising off of the ground. "I'll spread the word. We'll meet at the meadow?"

Trevor hadn't thought about that, but the instant that Seth suggested it, it seemed somehow right. He nodded. "Yes. That's where we'll meet."

Seth pulled away, becoming a scruffy blot against the dark sky. Trevor turned and slowly began to undulate into the underbrush. There was an odd burning feeling in the center of his stomach, a festering wound that was slowly leaking poison throughout his body...

-----

Sasoliar returned to the mansion late at night, exhausted and in a foul mood. Erkaizor, the Houndoom who lived in a cave in the base of the cliff, had been making trouble again. The Houndoom had always been difficult to handle, and he seemed to be more so than ever this night. She looked forward to a good night's sleep as she dragged herself through the building's large doors.

She allowed her paws to carry her to her bed, passing through rooms without even noticing where she was. As she went down the corridor, however, an unfamiliar scent caught her attention. She stopped dead and tested the air, sensitive nose picking up the scent of an intruder. No, two intruders.

Rage coursed through her tired veins as she looked down the hallway. They dared trespass here, her own private residence? The scum! She started off down the hall, snout close to the ground, following their scent throughout the dusty hall. The scent was at least an hour old, but at least she could get an idea of where they had been and if they had destroyed or stolen anything. She followed the scent into a room off the main hall and from there, into a dark closet. Her head snapped up as she realized where she was.

Dusty shelves along one wall held evolution stones, precious gems that many a trainer spent years seeking out. Sasoliar regarded them with distrust and revulsion, but quickly turned her attention to the items that lay scattered about haphazardly. Two dark circles in the dust testified to the presence of split spheres that had lain for a long time but were now gone. So, they had taken two of the Pokeballs, had they?

This puzzled the Ninetales considerably. The Pokeballs fascinated her. She had tossed them in here without much care, but she would sometimes come down here to admire them. They were mysterious and intriguing, and she would sometimes spend some time turning one over between her forepaws, contemplating its function. But why would anybody want them? Grottlis had told her that they were useless when he gave them back to her. Why, she had only kept them because she thought that they were interesting. Whoever had broken in here, however, had apparently taken an interest in them as well.

Thinking of Grottlis made her suddenly look up in alarm. Moonlight was streaming in through the small window set high up in the wall. She was already late! Turning tails, she dashed from the closet, from the mansion, and into the forest. As she galloped along, she contemplated the situation. Surely Grottlis would be able to tell her about why they had taken the Pokballs.

She finally dashed out of the forest and out onto the cold sand. Sure enough, the Gengar was there waiting for her, spectral grin and leering eyes trained on her as she galloped towards him. Sasoliar's spirit's rose when she saw the small heap at his feet. So, he had brought Jeremy back to her? Excellent!

"Good evening, Sasoliar," he greeted her as she halted before him.

"The same to you, Grottlis," she replied. "I apologize for the delay. You see, there is another small matter that has come up."

"Another one?" Grottlis asked, clearly disappointed.

Sasoliar nodded. "Yes. You see, two Pokemon have apparently broken in to the mansion and found the Pokeballs. They made off with two of them. Do you have any idea why they might do that?"

There was a terrible silence. Grottlis glared at Sasoliar and finally snarled, "I thought I told you to get rid of those!"

Sasoliar was hurt. "I was going to, but I found them interesting. I just wanted to study them, that's all."

Grottlis sighed. "Forgive me. I spoke in haste. But indeed, this is a grave turn of events."

"Why?" Sasoliar asked.

"The trainers are likely going to be very agitated when they find out that there Pokeballs have turned up empty. They will naturally want to know what became of their beloved Pokemon."

Sasoliar sniffed, "They have been released from their life of menial servitude, of course."

"Of course," Grottlis replied silkily. "Now, they are likely going to try to start some sort of revolt against your rule. That's the way humans are, you know, always starting trouble."

"Oh, dear," Sasoliar sighed. "I suppose that I shall have to punish them. Why can't they just learn to be quiet and content?"

"I do not know that just punishment shall be enough," Grottlis replied darkly. "These humans will begin a massive rebellion! You can't talk sense into a mob Sasoliar. No, you're going to have to make an example of these rash humans."

"Example?" Sasoliar asked, mystified.

Grottlis nodded. "Indeed. Show these human scum that you mean business. That you are not afraid to use your powers to bring an end to their misbehavior. Earn their fear, and you earn their respect."

"Yes...I suppose that makes sense," Sasoliar mused. "But I don't know what I should do. Will you help me Grottlis?"

For a second Grottlis' red eyes darted back and forth as if he was seeking some means of escape, but when he replied, "Of course, Sasoliar," his eerie, hollow voice was as resolute as ever.

"Now, what do you want me to do with this?" he asked, indicating the crumpled Rattata lying at his feet.

Sasoliar regarded Jeremy thoughtfully. "I think that I can deal with him. Best to bring him with us, though. I don't want him running off again."

Grottlis shrugged and obligingly gathered the limp form up in his short arms. "Where to?" he asked.

Sasoliar had to think about that for a minute. After she hit on the answer, though, she chided herself for not seeing it sooner. "To the meadow, of course," she replied. "That is where they will be."

Together, ghost and fox entered the forest. But while the Ninetales' attention was fixed on the road and time ahead, the Gengar seemed to be equally focused on something else, frequently glancing back over his spectral shoulder.


	18. The Mission

Author's Notes: Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! This section is a little long today, so feel free to scroll down to the actual chapter at your leisure.

Well, VulpixTrainer, it's true that Pokeballs are fireproof, or at least their exteriors are. The interior circuitry, however, is somewhat more susceptible to heat. As the ball automatically opens and shuts, it would be difficult to get flames into its innards, and even if you were able to the fire would be extinguished when the ball closed and expelled the oxygen from the interior, thus putting the fire out. Therefore, it would be extremely difficult to cause any significant damage to one with flame. Pokeballs are not programmed to monitor environmental conditions, so they would not be able to let a Pokemon out in the event of a fire. A Pokeball could only sustain interior damage when its occupant was absent, as it opens only to release the Pokemon within. As for how Ailrianor plans to talk with Katherine, he's a smart Ninetales, I'm sure that he'll think of something...

Yes, my names are rather exotic, aren't they, Raichu-Fan? All of my Pokemon have three-part names containing a root, a prefix and a suffix. To take your example, the name "Allekendro" (pronounced just as it appears, Ah-leh-KEN-dro) may be broken up into the prefix, Alle, the root, Ken, and the suffix, Dro. Each piece has its own meaning, and many have several different interpretations. Allekendro, for example, means "Cunning One Who Walks in Darkness." The root-suffix combination "kendro" is actually quite popular with dark-types, as it means "One Who Walks in Darkness," or more literally, "Dark Walker." Take, for example, Malkendro, which means, "Lone One Who Walks in Darkness." I wanted to work the meaning of Sasoliar's name into the story somehow, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen, so I'll say it here: it means "The Light Unclouded." Note that Ghost Pokemon have only two parts to their name.

Interesting theory, Pikajenn. I wonder if you're on to something...

And yes, I really do spend my time coming up with stuff like Pokemon naming systems. Creepy, no? Anyway, here is the much-delayed eighteenth chapter.

**Chapter 18: The Mission**

Katherine awoke to find the sun streaming in through the window cut into the mountain's side. It seemed bright and cheerful as ever, and Katherine felt heartened. Her peaceful sleep had left her refreshed and optimistic. She hummed the League theme to herself as she stood up and stretched. Looking around, she noticed that Jeremy was absent. Judging the state that her now-crushed pile of grass was in compared to his, he hadn't slept at all the previous night. This dampened her good cheer a bit, but she put the moody Rattata out of her mind and went about her morning routine.

Some minutes later a small Vulpix poked his head around the entrance to the room. "Vulpix, vul, vul vulpix!" he announced cheerfully. Looking around the room, he blinked his amber eyes in surprise. "Vulll?"

"Jeremy's not here," Katherine told him. "He went for a walk last night and doesn't seem to have come back. Sorry."

The Vulpix appeared chagrinned for a minute, then flicked his tails in a gesture of defeat and turned around. "Vul pixvul vulpix," he commanded, and Katherine obediently followed him as he led her into the dining hall once again.

As before, Ailrianor and Lokynou were waiting, looking expectantly towards Katherine and the Vulpix escort. When Jeremy didn't appear, Ailrianor cocked his head quizzically. "Nine tales? Talesnine tales?" he asked.

The Vulpix repeated the tail flick and replied, "Vullpix. Vulvul pixpix."

Ailrianor glanced at Lokynou uneasily, but then spoke a few curt words to the Vulpix, who disappeared. Katherine sat down next to him. Breakfast was forthcoming, this time eggs with berries. Katherine had the uncomfortable impression that the eggs might be relatives of last night's entrée, but decided she didn't really want to know and didn't ask. After a few minutes a Vulpix came up to the trio. Katherine had difficulty telling the foxes apart, but she guessed that it might be the one that had escorted her here in the first place.

"Vull pix! Vul, vulvul pix," he told Ailrianor before turning away and finding a seat in a different part of the dining hall. Whatever he had told the elder Ninetales didn't agree with him, and Ailrianor ate pensively, seeming to radiate irritation.

Breakfast wound down, the mountain's residents slowly trickling out of the large chamber to go about their daily business. Ailrianor obviously wanted to tell Katherine something. He started to speak several times but cut himself off, tails lashing irritably, staring accusingly at the blank space next to Katherine. "Taales. Ninetales," he grumbled. He was without a translator, and would have to stoop to a method that he had an extreme dislike for.

Turning to Katherine, he barked, "Tales! Ninetales nine!" and stood up. Lokynou followed his lead, and Katherine did the same, unsure of what was expected of her. Ailrianor started off and Lokynou gently bumped Katherine in his direction. It looked like she was being escorted off somewhere again. Katherine was becoming tired of being herded around the mountain like a Mareep.

As she was led deeper into the mountain, Katherine noticed that it seemed different than before. The corridors seemed dimmer than last night, and Kathirine craned her neck upward to see if there was some sort of problem with the mountain's will-o'-the-wisps. Indeed, there seemed to be far fewer of them darting about the ceiling than there had been previously. She attributed that to the early hour; they probably just showed up in force as the light was waning, as did ghosts.

It turned out that their destination was, once again, the volcano's caldera. The sun shone upon the area with an early morning radiance but seemed unable to touch the strange pool in its center. The water therein did not even acknowledge the light's presence with a solitary shimmer, remaining dark and mysterious as ever. Katherine looked at it nervously, still leery after her experience with it the previous day. Her heart sank as Ailrianor made a beeline for it; that was apparently their destination.

Ailrianor stepped up to the pool and stared into its depths curiously. As Katherine and Lokynou arrived at the water's edge, he stretched out on the bank and dipped his left forepaw into the water. Ripples spread across the pool's surface but rather than dissipating as normal ripples they seemed to amplify as they spread across the dark waters. Katherine hung back, still reluctant to go near the mysterious pool, but Lokynou pushed her forward.

Peering in apprehensively, Katherine saw not the disturbing scene of burning flowers and watching eyes as she had previously but rather a whirling jumble of images that tumbled across the surface of the water like a jumble of scenes seen by strobe light. One image swam out from the mass and solidified. It was a Rattata, seated on its haunches and grinning impudently. It was clearly somewhere inside of the mountain, a smooth rock wall behind its back and a fiery light dancing over its head. Katherine didn't know exactly what to make of this and glanced at Lokynou who was now standing next to her, watching the display with interest.

Lokynou replied to the glance with a quizzical look of her own. Katherine looked back at the picture, and saw the Rattata vanish abruptly, leaving the imagined hallway empty. That gave Katherine a clue. "You can't find Jeremy," she guessed. Lokynou nodded, pleased.

The pool dissolved back into a crazy slideshow again before centering on an image of the night sky, the sickle moon standing out amongst the soft stars. This scene rippled and cleared to reveal another room in the mountain. Here the image was focused on the ceiling, showing the complex dance of will-o'-the wisps as they darted about the ceiling. Then, they suddenly winked out in unison, leaving the room dark. Katherine thought that this was the end of the demonstration and began to try to puzzle out what it meant when two luminous eyes appeared in the ensuing black.

Katherine yelped and stumbled backward, startling Lokynou. "I've seen those before," she explained when she got over the shock. "They were there yesterday when I looked into the pool."

Now it was Lokynou and Ailrianor's turns to look surprised. They exchanged a few muttered comments in low tones, faces grim. Lokynou then gently propelled Katherine back to the water's edge. Rattled, Katherine mustered her courage and peered back into the pool's depths.

The eyes were still there, but Katherine found that she no longer experienced the feeling of being watched as she gazed upon them. They were as malicious as ever, but seemed disembodied and surreal. As she watched, a shadowy figure defined itself around them, a glowing smile appearing below the eyes. Katherine recognized the figure.

"Oh, it's a Gengar!" she observed triumphantly. But what did a Gengar have to do with anything? She thought back over what the pool had shown her this time. Nighttime, the will-o'-wisps fleeing, the Gengar appearing. Wait...what had the moon phase been last night?

"A Gengar entered the mountain last night and it scared all of the will-o'-wisps away!" she announced proudly.

"Tales!" Lokynou barked excitedly, happy that Katherine had grasped the complex concept. _Maybe that's why there aren't so many will-o'-wisps around today, _Katherine thought. _They were scared away by the Gengar and most of them haven't come back yet._

The image in the pool was changing again. The Gengar remained, but a new figure emerged from the gloom. It was a Rattata, appearing very small and feeble compared to the grinning apparition. Then both of them faded away.

That one wasn't hard at all. "You think that the Gengar took Jeremy," she groaned.

"Tales, ninetales tales!" Ailrianor agreed.

"Which means that they've gone back to the island, where I am now going to have to fly to in order to rescue him and prevent his Mistress from executing him or whatever," she sighed. Playing hero was beginning to become a real drag.

"Tallles..." Ailrianor confirmed, obviously a bit put out by the human's tone.

"What's the plan?" Katherine asked, somewhat resignedly.

Ailrianor turned his attention back to the pool, and Katherine did the same. The kaleidoscope of images repeated itself, and soon she found herself staring at her back.

The Katherine projected in the pool was facing down a Gengar, presumably the one featured in the previous images. Rather than bringing out one of her Pokemon to battle with it, however, her image reached into its pocket and drew forth a star-shaped object, which she held out towards the Gengar. The strange item flared with a brilliant white light and the Gengar disappeared.

"Wait, why would I attack the Gengar?" Katherine asked. "Isn't the sadistic Ninetales the one that I should be worried about?"

Lokynou shook her head gently, a small smile playing across her muzzle, as though the fox was amused by the human's naiveté. She indicated the pool once more, and Katherine saw that it was now projecting an enlarged image of the object that her spectral had apparently used to ward off the malignant Pokemon. It was a stone cut into an irregular star shape, dark reddish in color and mottled with veins and blots of a dark green-black. In its center was carved a sphere with long spikes radiating from its perimeter, which Katherine assumed was probably supposed to represent a sun.

"Okay, so you've got some sort of mystical rock that will make the Gengar go away. Why is it so important?" she asked.

Ailrianor sighed and shook his proud head, apparently disappointed that Katherine was unable to figure it out for herself. He concentrated on the pool, creating a new image, this time forming a scene in which he and Lokynou stood opposite another Ninetales, obviously far younger, its pelt shining golden. Between them stood the Gengar, grinning maliciously at the elder Ninetales.

"Ohhh, I get it. The Gengar is somehow stopping you from getting to the Mistress. If I get rid of it for you, you can deal with her. Gotcha. Where's the magical rock?"

The rock appeared once again in the pool, only much smaller now. About the size of a human child's hand, Katherine guessed. Lokynou startled her by leaning out over the water and grabbing the image in her jaws. She lifted the stone out of the water, leaving the pool dark and empty. Turning to Katherine, she dropped it smugly at the trainer's feet.

Katherine was stunned. She bent down to pick up the stone. It was as solid as any other rock, water drops still clinging to it and gleaming in the sunlight. It was smoother than she would have guessed from the image that Ailrianor had conjured of it, surface shining with a polished sheen. Most definitely real, or certainly the most real-feeling illusion that she had come across.

Ailrianor withdrew his paw from the pool with a smile, pleased that the display had made an impression on the trainer. He irritably flicked water from his paw, apparently done creating pictures for the day.

"Okay," Katherine said in a shaky voice. Seeing the apparently immaterial rock in the pool become the solid stone in her hand had thrown her off balance. The idea that what the waters revealed was actually real made her distinctly uncomfortable. "Let's go over the plan again, shall we? I fly back to the island, find the Gengar, and, um, hold up this rock..." she looked at Lokynou uncertainly. "Is that all I have to do? Hold it out at him? No magical incantations or anything?"

Lokynou shook her head. The stone would work by itself.

"...and I rescue Jeremy, fly back here, and you'll take care of the rest?"

Lokynou nodded this time. That was the plan.

"I guess that I had better be off, then," Katherine surmised. "I have everything that I need. I'll be back once I've gotten rid of the Gengar so that you can go after the Ninetales." She stepped back from Lokynou and pulled a Pokeball off of her belt. "Go, Pidgeot!" she commanded, and he burst out of the device in a shower of white light. The ball bounced back to Katherine, who returned it to her belt. It looked as though she was off once again.

"Ready for another trip, Pidgeot?" she asked her Pokemon.

"Geeoott!" he shrieked appreciatively. He glanced curiously at the two Ninetales, their silver pelts glimmering in the sunlight, as well as the oddly shrouded pool behind them, but dismissed them as unimportant. The cold mountain air and blazing sun were calling to him, and he longed to be flying again, released to the freedom of the wind. Katherine mounted him and he pushed off, wings beating heavily to carry he and his passenger up and away from the mountain.

Katherine held the strange reddish stone in her hand, turning it over and inspecting it with a critical eye. It definitely didn't look all that magical to her, but then, she wasn't really that well-versed in the arcane, either. Shrugging, she slipped the stone into the front pocket of her sweatshirt and leaned forward, eyes squinted against the vicious wind. After she had this little errand done, she resolved to herself, she would keep her nose out of the business of Ninetales.

BREAK

The elder Ninetales watched the Pidgeot depart, the fierce bird soon disappearing into the bright blue of the morning sky. Still they continued to sit and watch after it, eyes staring off into the sky without really seeing it.

Ailrianor heaved a small sigh. Amazing, wasn't it, how you could fool a human with a bit of simple slight-of-paw? They were simply too trusting, believing Pokemon to be virtuous creatures incapable of deception.

_Any trainer who thinks that has obviously never had an encounter with a Gengar,_ he thought to himself.

Lokynou, by contrast, was trying to brush away the guilt that nibbled on her thoughts, leaving them confused and distracted. A single question repeated itself over and over in her head.

_Have we done the right thing?_


	19. The Rebellion

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reviewing. Sorry, VulpixTrainer, I can't really answer your questions at this point. If I told you the answer now, it would sort of ruin the plot. Don't worry, though, you ought to be finding out about those things soon...

There was a rather large problem with the initial upload of Chapter 19. This is the fixed version.

**Chapter 19: The Rebellion**

The sun had risen by the time the full assembly of Pokemon had arrived in the meadow. In ones and twos they appeared, heads down and bodies prepared to dash away at the slightest sign of danger. They did their best to blend in with the wildflowers, which were bobbing and rocking as they were jarred by the creatures brushing past them. A great many Pokemon had come once they had heard the impassioned speeches of Seth and Trevor. They burned with anger at the thought of what their Mistress had done to innocent Pokemon who, much like they themselves, had somehow been seen to stand in her way.

The Pokemon shifted uneasily as they stood in the field, pressed close together in order to fit within its small boundaries. It was this very fact that worried them, for they were certain that the meadow had been larger the previous day. Indeed, some two feet of earth around its perimeter was now filled with wilted, dying wildflowers and the shade of the trees that were slowly stretching their grasping branches over it.

When it became apparent that no more Pokemon would be arriving, Trevor deemed that it was time to begin his speech. The Ekans coiled his sinuous body around the trunk of a short birch tree that grew near the field's center so that the assembly could see him. Seth was perched in one of its upper branches, awaiting his turn to speak.

"My friends!" Trevor called out to the waiting Pokemon, "I have called all of you together to speak to you about a matter of great importance. I thank you all for heeding my call, and I commend you for seeing the grave nature of the situation. For you see, we have convened to discuss a great undertaking. Revolt! We must rise up to take back our lives from the machinations of the Mistress, or see them forfeited."

"As you know, my friend and I have made a sickening discovery. It would seem that our Pokemon, and indeed all Pokemon taken from the cursed trainers now trapped on this isle, have been callously slaughtered to who knows what end."

The crowd hissed and tittered, its members turning to one another and discussing the matter in low, angry tones. Trevor waited for the wave of sound to break and continued.

"Yes, it was a terrible deed, the whim of a cruel, terrible mind. But I say that we must not allow it to be pushed to the back of our minds. No! The days for ignoring our position and the cruelty of the Mistress have come to an end. For it is now apparent that she seeks not only to control our lives, but our deaths as well."

The crowd murmured again, louder this time. Voices of every timbre growled or grumbled in the slowly warming morning air. Trevor watched this, pleased. He was clearly getting through to his audience.

"And now I say that we must take our lives back into our own hands and throw off the shackles of our subservience. No longer shall we cower before the might of one Ninetales as individuals, but tower over her as a single group. Together, and only together, may we finally know what it is to be free once more."

The crowd roared its approval, the sound carrying on the crisp morning air. Trevor winced at it, thinking that the Mistress must surely hear and come to investigate. He reprimanded himself for foolish thinking shortly thereafter; let her come! These Pokemon were no longer wont to turn a blind eye to her cruelty. They would be able to overcome her together. Still, a few dissenters remained in the crowd.

"How do we know that you're telling us the truth?" one skeptical Pidgey piped up from near the back of the crowd. He got a few glares from his comrades, but Trevor received the question without flinching.

"See the evidence for yourself," he suggested, looking up to Seth in the boughs above him. The Spearow reached down and plucked one of the perpetually open Pokeballs from where he had set them nearby, up against the trunk of the tree. He flicked it out into the crowd, where it slowly made its way back to the Pidgey.

The grisly object created an outraged reaction. Pokemon and human alike were shocked and horrified by it, and no further requests for proof were voiced. Another unconvinced voice spoke up, however.

"So we're going to be doing all of the fighting while you do the commanding from a safe distance, eh, human?" a haughty Persian called.

This question rankled Trevor considerably. He was sorely tempted to respond with a equally venomous reply, but he held his forked tongue and worded his answer carefully. "Of course not, friend. I will gladly fight alongside any of you Pokemon, and I am sure that my other human friends will do the same." The Persian didn't look entirely pleased with the notion, but he subsided under the avalanche of reprimanding glares and jostles that he received from his neighbors. Trevor continued to answer questions, his answers never missing a beat.

_The guy could've been a damn politician,_ Seth thought to himself in a mixture of awe and derision. _Figures that the Mistress would turn him into a snake._

At last, the Houndoom, Erkaizor, spoke, his low, growling voice hushing the excited conversations that had been springing up amongst the crowd. "Enough of this talk," he growled. "What is it that you want us to do? Is there any sort of plan to go with all of these brave words?"

"Seth is in charge of the plan of action," Trevor explained. "He'll be happy to go over it with you."

All eyes turned to the Spearow, who ruffled his scraggly feathers, pleased by the attention. "Well, I don't claim to be as good with words as Trevor," he admitted, "But I think I can answer your question, Erkaizor. Now, the key thing here to remember is surprise. We need to catch the Mistress," he spoke the word as though it was the vilest that had ever passed his beak, "when she is off guard. The best course of action would be to make our move as soon as possible, before she is aware of our resolve. Now, with the aid of surprise--"

"Oh, I'm surprised, I assure you," a cold, silky voice cut him off. The crowd hushed, a nervous shiver running through its members. A proud Ninetales stepped from where she had been waiting in the shadow of the outer trees, taking in the whole conversation. "Surprised that you all are such great fools," she finished, her burning red eyes sweeping over the assembled islanders, somehow seeming to root out every last one of them and glare at them accusingly.

She trotted over to stand near the base of the tree about which Trevor was coiled, holding her head up proudly. "I should have expected this of two humans," she announced, glaring up at the Ekans and Spearow. If Seth had uttered her title with loathing, the tone of her voice expressed at least twice as much. "You two have broken into my mansion, my home, and had the gall to make off with my property," she accused, eyes narrowing. "You then stage an ultimately doomed rebellion with the intent of usurping my rule. Grave charges indeed."

"You can't control us any longer, Ninetales," Trevor hissed in response, eyes flashing angrily. Sasoliar's ears twitched irritably when he purposefully set aside her title but remained silent, glaring coolly at him, waiting for him to finish. "We have united now. No longer can you oppress us. The native Pokemon will take back their rights to the island, and we humans will be free of your curse. You cannot control our lives any longer."

There were titterings out in the hushed crowd, and a few of the assembled Pokemon nodded their approval. "Is that it, then?" Sasoliar asked the crowd, her voice deadly soft. "You think that I have treated you unfairly, even infringed upon your rights? I, who have only ever acted in your interests?" her voice rose as she continued, eyes flashing angrily. "It is I who have protected you for all of these years from the insidious influence of the humans! Were it not for me, you would have soon found your little island encroached upon, the heavy tread of the humans crushing the life from it. You and your children would be hunted down like mere animals, captured and forced to serve them until the day that you die!"

"Protect them?!" Seth shrieked, glaring down at the Ninetales from his perch. "I'll tell you what they need protection from! Murdering bitches like you, that's who!"

"You're one to talk," Sasoliar snarled. "You humans poison the land, the water, and the air. You kill each other and all manner of creatures without need, for sport! I would never take a life in cold blood like you malicious killers!"

The audience was captivated by the heated exchange between the two enraged parties. They weren't sure what to think or what to believe. Trevor realized that whoever won the debate would win their support as well. They could not afford to use.

"Then how do you explain _this_?" Seth snarled, throwing Trevor's open Pokeball to the ground before the Ninetales. She regarded it with interest, then kicked it away contemptuously.

"What more explanation do I need than that the poor creature that was enslaved by that device has been made free once more?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, you're big on "liberation,"" Seth cried, losing his temper. "You honestly think that you're doing the right thing, don't you? You think death is preferable to life in a Pokeball?"

"Of course not," Sasoliar replied, pleased at seeing the Spearow lose control. "I revere life far more than you humans ever could. But that is not the matter which I came here to discuss." She turned back to the crowd. Her red eyes radiated a strange light, and those who looked into them felt oddly compelled to do as she bade them, hypnotized by the flames that they saw dancing within. "I have come to put an end to your misguided "revolt." Comrades, I ask that you put aside the nonsensical rantings of these two rabble-rousing humans and see reason. I have no intention of punishing you for your transgression. Indeed, all that I ask is that you disperse peacefully and allow me to deal with these vagabonds."

Trevor could see the advantage slipping away from them and made a last desperate bid for the crowd's support. "Do not be so easily dissuaded," he called. "Remember that we are many and that there is only one of her. Who will stand with me against her evil?"

"I will, Trevor," chirped a bright voice from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Jess the Togepi slowly trundled forward, endeavoring not to trip on her way to the front.

"As will I," came a quiet voice from nearby. A small Nincada scuttled out of the mass of Pokemon, his eyes focused on the Ekans. One by one, most of the Pokemon pledged their support for the two humans, agreeing to stand against the Ninetales, who looked on with growing ire.

"Fools, the lot of you!" she screeched when the final group seemed to have arrayed themselves before her, looking back at her defiantly. "You will pay for this!"

"Now is the time, friends!" Trevor yelled, slithering to the ground. "We must put an end to her rule of hate once and for all. Remember, there is only one of her."

"Not entirely true," an eerie voice replied. Most of the Pokemon in the meadow looked around them, confused. The voice sounded hollow and flat, resonating from all directions at once. It threw the bold revolutionaries off balance, made their righteous charge stumble to a halt.

The shadows took on life, flowing out from the encroaching wood. They drew themselves together in the shape of a Gengar, cunning eyes glowing red and perpetually smiling mouth set in an eerie grin. He flinched as a breeze temporarily blew aside the bough that had been blocking the sunlight from his body, but quickly recovered his composure. Keeping to the sparse shadows, he flitted across the meadow, moving in bounds from one place to another, seeming to pop out of reality and back in at his desired location. Trevor's heart sank as he saw what the Pokemon was carrying in his arms.

"I will stand by your Mistress," he announced. "I, unlike most of you, apparently, am not blind to the world. I know of the evils of humanity. Only Pokemon are pure. We do not carry the taint of insatiable violence and greed, the taint that mars the human soul."

"You're one to talk," Trevor snarled. "Considering what you're about to do."

"Ah, but while I do indeed take undesirable action, I do so only out of greatest need and in order to protect my comrades. I grieve that I am forced to resort to such measures, but you humans have forced me to do so. You see, I have with me one of your little friends..."

"Let him go!" Seth snarled.

"I'm afraid that I can't do that," the Gengar replied silkily, the grin on his spectral face genuine. "Why, you might be so rash as to attack myself and your Mistress after I let him go. Now, we couldn't have that, could we? Why don't we discuss your surrendering yourselves and ending your little tantrum, hmm?"

"Never!" Trevor and Seth shouted in unison.

"Oh, my, I do believe that he's coming 'round," Grottlis announced, almost as though speaking to himself. Indeed, the Rattata in his arms was beginning to stir and groan. Grottlis seized him by his curly purple tail and held him high. Jeremy squealed with pain and shock, eyes popping open. His legs flailed instinctively as he dangled, turning about slowly in response to his thrashing. "You wouldn't want anything...unpleasant...to happen to him, would you?"

"Bastard!" Seth snarled, seeing their dilemma. Could they attempt an attack on the Ninetales and her ghostly friend when Jeremy's life might well be forfeit as a result? "Any ideas, Trevor?" he hissed to the Ekans, who was staring at the struggling Rattata with impotent fury plain in his reptilian face.

"Best we can do is see if we can get that Gengar's slimy paws off him and maybe attack when he lets his guard down," Trevor replied. "All right, Gengar, what is it that you want of us?" he asked.

"Just what I asked before," the Grottlis replied. "Put aside your foolish little rebellion and I'll be happy to put this rat down unharmed."

Trevor's response to this was cut short by a piercing shriek. Once again, the Pokemon in the field were caught by surprise, but this time Sasoliar and Grottlis shared their consternation. The Pokemon craned their heads this way and that, looking for the source of the noise.

The cry repeated itself, "Piiidgeeooottt!" and was accompanied by a rushing sound and a shadow that slid over the flowered meadow. A powerful Pidgeot was descending from on high, his creamy stomach silhouetted against the brilliant sky. There was a trainer on his back.

Jeremy breathed an enormous sigh and went limp with relief in Grottlis' grip. Sasoliar looked up at the circling raptor with a mixture of satisfaction and annoyance. As she had predicted, the human had come rushing to the aid of her friend, but she had chosen a decidedly inopportune time to do so.

"Let Jeremy go, Gengar!" the girl riding the Pidgeot called down, her Pokemon circling reluctantly closer.

"And who have we here?" Grottlis asked, more to himself than to Katherine. The trainer heard and understood him, however. Ghosts, like Psychics, have the ability to affect their target's feelings as well as simply expressing themselves through subtle tone changes and body language. As a result, Katherine was easily able to guess what the Pokemon was saying. She heard his muttered comment and a ripple of consternation and surprise, and knew his question.

"You know me," Katherine replied, jumping from Pidgeot's back to the flower-covered meadow below, landing nimbly. The bird was apparently refusing to land, as she removed a Pokeball from her belt and bade him return. "You've been chasing me and Jeremy since we managed to get away from this accursed island."

Trevor's heart jerked as he looked at her haughtily standing there in the field, her stance confident and unflinching. _She's just like we used to be, _he thought regretfully, noting the belt of well-used Pokeballs strapped around her waist and the collection of badges displayed thereon. _We were invincible, undertaking the greatest of our lives with our friends at our sides and our destinies within our grasp. And then one day we decided to explore a mysterious little island..._

"Ah, yes, you," Grottlis observed, displeased with his slip. "The human scum who was attempting to aid the Rattata in overthrowing the Mistress. Yes, you humans are all alike."

"Stow it, you. I asked you to put Jeremy down, and I mean it. Otherwise, I might just have to--"

"Have to what?" Grottlis replied with delight. "What threat can you possibly bring to bear against me?"

"_This!_" Katherine replied, whipping something out of the front pocket of her sweatshirt and pointing it at him confidently.

Grottlis instinctively recoiled, cursing himself. Of course, that meddling Ailrianor had given her some sort of magical artifact to ward him off with. How typical of the manipulating old fool.

He was surprised when he didn't find himself rent asunder by some arcane force and forced himself to calm down and inspect the object. He turned his lamplike eyes upon it and noticed that the human was at least as surprised as himself that the deadly device didn't seem to be doing anything at all.

He squinted a bit, trying to bring the object, which was gleaming in the intense sunlight, into focus. Finally, he was able to see it clearly, recognize what it was.

And then he burst out laughing.


	20. The Truth

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reviewing. Nope, none of the trainers were shipwrecked on the island, although I find your asking that oddconsidering what happens in this chapter. And nope, the rock is not a Sun Stone, Midnight Phoenix. Good guess, though.

This chapter could really have been three, as it switches perspective in the middle. The part where it is told from Trevor's point of view is really short, though, so I decided to include it here and add Katherine's next chapter to the end. Events go together better that way.

**Chapter 20: The Truth**

Katherine was considerably unnerved by the Gengar's laughter. It was a horrible, mocking sound that rolled out across the meadow in terrible waves. She shook the red stone frantically. "Work! Come on!" she grunted desperately. The stone gave no response, remaining as unremarkable as ever.

The Gengar stopped laughing, his grin more mocking than ever. Maintaining a firm grip on Jeremy, who seemed to be feeling the adverse effects of blood rushing to his small head, he began slowly to advance. Katherine felt frozen, unable to move. She held the stone out stupidly in front of her, watching him draw nearer. At last her reached out his unoccupied hand and grabbed the stone away from her, arm moving in a blur too quick for Katherine's eyes to follow. He turned it over once before his face with interest, then tossed it carelessly over his shoulder into the wildflowers, narrowly missing a Sunkern.

"I'm impressed," he snorted. "I see that Ailrianor treats his agents well. Is that all?"

"I...I..." Katherine stammered, eyes bulging. The Gengar chuckled again at her surprise, enjoying her fear.

"So why did you _really_ come here, since you obviously didn't intend to do me any harm? Were you perhaps interested in picking some flowers?" he asked mockingly.

"I came to free the Pokemon and trainers here," she replied as boldly as she could. "They must surely see how they have been mistreated and I intend to aid them in any way that I can."

"Niinetales!" came a snarl from behind her. Katherine whipped around to see the Ninetales glaring at her with fury.

"This trainer speaks the truth!" an Ekans shouted, speaking in English so that Katherine could understand him. Katherine heard his voice distantly, briefly realizing that he must be another cursed trainer. He seemed far away, however, and his voice distorted by time and space. She was held captivated by the Ninetales' glowing eyes, fire burning deep within them.

She lost all sense of the world around her, instead becoming a part of a distant one. From somewhere, she thought she heard a different voice. _You think that you know everything..._

"We'll be back home this afternoon, darling. Mummy's left some nice food and water for you. You be a good girl while we're gone, okay?" said a woman, oddly blurred and distorted, as though only half-remembered. Her voice was warm, but equally distant.

"Dear, if we don't leave now we'll be late for the ferry," came a deeper voice, its speaker unseen.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming," the woman sighed. She turned and trotted from the room, high heels clicking on the hardwood floor. She shut the door behind her, and Katherine was left alone.

There was a vague notion of the passage of time, light sliding across the floor, shadows growing. A strange darkness clouded the afternoon, distant rumblings and roarings. A terrible wind picked up, screaming and howling angrily at being kept from Katherine by walls and roof. Katherine, for her part, hid under a heavily embroidered sofa, shivering fearfully at each great bellow of thunder, at the hissing of rain lashing windowpanes.

Still more waiting. The storm blew over, the night came, but still Katherine waited patiently. Time seemed to blur, days rolling over one another in a confused jumble of loneliness and thirst. There seemed to come a time, much later, when Katherine realized that she was alone, unwanted.

_Would you like to know what it's like? _someone asked Katherine. Confused, Katherine didn't know what she should reply when, suddenly, the world snapped back to the familiar. The Ninetales gave a shriek of pain and whirled around, kicking out with a hind leg at a Houndour that had bitten one of her tails. Her entrancing eyes were no longer boring into Katherine's, and the trainer slowly began to collect her consciousness.

The Ninetales was suddenly beset by Pokemon of all varieties, from tiny to formidable. She snarled and blasted flame at them, trying to shake off the ones that had latched their teeth into her hide. The Gengar was suddenly among them, his dark presence doing even more to repel the assailants than the regular gushes of fire. The field was aflame, bursts of fire erupting where an errant Flamethrower broke across the flowers. They burned furiously, becoming burning torches and, finally, smoldering skeletons.

Katherine shook her head, trying to clear it. What had that been? Scenes from the Ninetales' past revisited? She slowly became aware of the action around her. The Ninetales had given up any semblance of organized fighting, merely snarling and blasting flame wildly, trying to shake off the numerous attackers that swarmed over her. The Gengar found himself equally beset. Katherine realized that he was no longer holding onto Jeremy and wondered where the Rattata had disappeared to.

As she thought over the brief experience she had had as the Ninetales, or, as she had the impression, as the Vuplix, she soon realized what had happened. _She was owned by the rich people that lived in the mansion. Some sort of pet. But then they left for somewhere and didn't come back. The storm..._

A snarling Persian darted past her, racing towards the vicious melee. Katherine suddenly broke free of the spell that seemed to encircle her, opening her eyes to the horrible destruction before her. The Ninetales was bleeding freely from numerous wounds but still fighting. Injured Pokemon, most badly burned or shivering uncontrollably from one of the Gengar's attacks littered the area, and the fires begun by the Ninetales' careless attacks were beginning to spread, consuming more of the field. "Wait!" cried Katherine in horror. "Stop this! Listen! Stop it!"

She tried to get into the fight, pushing battle-crazed Pokemon out of her way. She received a nasty bite from an overexcited Furret as she tried to shove him aside and narrowly missed being hit by a gush of flame. The Pokemon seemed to realize what she was doing, however, and began to back away. A few even dashed off to try to put out the fires. Katherine wondered briefly where the Gengar had gone off to, as he had apparently abandoned the fighting. The Ninetales was eventually left alone, panting with exertion, eyes beginning to glaze with pain. She still snarled as Katherine drew near.

"What is it, Katherine?" the Ekans asked in an almost irritated tone. "Our Mistress must be brought down if we are to be free again."

Katherine was sickened. "Yes, but not like this!" she cried. "This is just wrong! It's barbaric. The Ninetales should be punished, yes, but you don't have to kill her and enjoy yourselves in the process!" She looked around at the Pokemon, some of whom were shifting around a bit guiltily, not looking at her. The Ninetales gave her a dazed look of disbelief, finally succumbing to her wounds and slumping to the ground.

----

Trevor was surprised at how quickly it had happened. It became apparent that the trainer's odd stone wasn't going to work and she unwittingly fell into the Mistress' trap, gazing into her hypnotic eyes. Clearly, the Mistress intended to lay her curse upon this unfortunate girl as well. Somehow, they would need to distract her, force her to break eye contact.

Seth remedied the problem for Trevor. Seeing the Gengar distracted, watching the rapt girl with amusement in his red eyes, he took off, flying low and off to the side. The Gengar didn't even notice him until he was a mere foot or so away, coming at him from the left. The ghost turned and instinctively put up his stubby arms to shield his eyes from the Spearow's sharp beak, losing his grasp on Jeremy in the process.

The dazed Rattata dropped to the ground with a thump. At first he could only lie there dumbly, but he quickly recovered and dashed away. Seth left off harrying the ghost and flapped back to the large assembly of Pokemon, leaving the furious Gengar to realize that he had lost his hostage.

"Attack!" Trevor yelled, slithering forward to follow his own orders. The other Pokemon, seeing the Gengar suddenly lose his leverage, dashed forward, bearing down on their Mistress. The zealous Malkendro acted first, grabbing one of the Ninetale's flowing tails in his jaws and biting down hard.

This was sufficient to break the Mistress' concentration, and she turned her attention from the trainer who was, fortunately still human, and found herself suddenly beset from all angles.

After this it became a confusing blur. Trevor recalled a wave of paralyzing darkness that washed over him as he received a clout by the Gengar, numerous scratches received as a result of coming too close to other fighters and a slightly singed tail from a close encounter with a Flamethrower.

The trainer had regained her senses apparently, as she suddenly began to try to force the combatants apart. Trevor withdrew reluctantly, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He slowly returned to himself, a small trickle of guilt pushing through his excited, buzzing head. "What's the matter, Katherine? Our Mistress must be brought down if we are to be free again," he announced before he had fully returned to himself, trying to chase away a slight feeling of resentment.

Her reply brought the guilt down on him in a great, crushing wave. He looked about him and saw devastation, Pokemon burnt and bleeding, many from wounds inflicted by careless comrades. Trevor was near an area where still-warm ash littered the ground, the remnants of a cluster of wildflowers. The Mistress was down, barely able to muster the strength to hold her head high.

"I didn't really realize what we were doing," he admitted, angry at himself for making such a lame excuse.

"Clearly," Katherine replied dryly. "Look, I want to know what's really going on here. Something's Magikarpy."

"What is there to know?" Seth snarled, clearly bitter at seeing his revenge averted. He was badly burned on his right side, feathers blackened and stripped to skeletons. "She put a curse on us and turned us into Pokemon! She trapped all of the Pokemon living here! She killed all of our Pokemon!"

"Killed all of your Pokemon?" Katherine asked in horror. The Ninetales shook her head angrily, but Katherine wasn't watching her. "Do you have any proof?"

"Oh, yes," Seth replied darkly. He then blinked and looked a little put out. "Um, if we can find it, I guess."

The two Pokeballs had been lost in the scuffle, but a search of the field quickly turned one of them up. Trevor picked it up in his mouth and presented it to Katherine. The trainer took it uncertainly, a look of apprehension on her face.

----

Katherine turned the cold metal object over between her hands, inspecting it from all angles. It was a Pokeball, no doubt, and a nonfunctional one at that. The driving mechanisms and inner circuitry were now a mere lumpy mass of metal, the entire interior rendered useless and apparently the victim of some sort of fire. The Pokeball was stuck open, a position that Katherine found too much like a screaming mouth.

_What could do this to a Pokeball? _she wondered. If anything had been in here when it was destroyed, then it was certainly not still alive. This condition couldn't have been a result of a release maneuver; the Pokeball wouldn't open for long enough to allow such significant structural damage to occur. She was at a loss for a few moments, then a wisp of memory came drifting back to her. _Somehow, it might be possible to manipulate a Pokeball so that expend its own supply of energy, rather than re-using a Pokemon's own...This would recreate a Pokemon's physical form, but it would essentially be a soulless creature...The Pokeball would be ruined...The remaining energy, the Pokemon's soul, would forcefully exit the device, probably destroying it in the process..._

_Oh, no, _Katherine realized, _Not killed, but far worse. But if that is the case, and the Ninetales really _did _try to split the Pokemon from their soul, then where are they?_

She turned to look at the Ninetales, which was on the verge of swooning. If Katherine wanted answers, there was no one else to turn to. She reached down into one of her pant pockets and felt around for a basic Potion. That would be enough to keep the Pokemon lucid, but not enough to give her sufficient energy to try anything funny. She pulled it out and twisted the nozzle, preparing to administer the spray medicine.

"What are you doing?" the Ekans hissed at her in consternation.

"I'm getting answers, like I said," she replied. "Don't worry, I won't give her too much." She bent down over the Ninetales, who snarled vehemently, and misted her with the bottle. The fox Pokemon yelped as the antiseptic stung the scrapes and scratches that crisscrossed her hide, snapping at Katherine's hand. The trainer had already pulled back, however, depositing the empty Potion bottle in its pocket to be refilled later. She then waited for the artificial stimulants in the liquid to do their work, dulling pain and exciting the body's healing mechanisms. The Ninetales began to look better. Finally she heaved herself back into a sitting position, remaining silent and refusing to thank Katherine for her help. Katherine didn't really care.

"What exactly did you do to these Pokeballs?" she asked.

"Tales!" the fox Pokemon barked.

"She's not going to tell you," a small voice observed from the undergrowth. Jeremy popped out from between the flower stems. He had a wide scrape running down his left side and a nasty bruise on his head but seemed otherwise none the worse for wear. "Looks like I'm back to playing translator, huh?"

"Oh, you'll tell me, all right," Katherine told the Ninetales grimly. "I don't have any love for you, you know that. I would just as gladly leave you to the mercy of your victims. And in fact, if you decide to torch me or don't cooperate, that's exactly what I'll do. I'm just trying to find out the truth her. If you're so beyond reproach, you shouldn't have any problem with that."

The Ninetales glared at her venomously, then responded. "Taales. Ninetales nine nineninetales nine. Talesnine tales tales ninetales."

Jeremy rolled his eyes as he translated, "Oh, it's just the usual, you know, "I was helping them, it was for their own good, blah, blah, blah," but she denies having killed them."

"I know that," Katherine responded contemptuously. Jeremy and the other Pokemon gave her surprised looks, but she ignored them. "What did you do to the Pokeballs?"

"Ninetales. Tales tales ninetales," the Ninetales responded.

"Nothing," Jeremy reported. "She says she gave 'em to somebody called Grottlis, told him to take them off of the island and set the Pokemon inside them free. They were as they are now when she got them back."

Grottlis...that could only be the Gengar. The Ninetales' response clicked in Katherine's head, the last piece falling into place. Well, one of the last pieces anyway. If Ailrianor had wanted him gone, why had he sent her off with a fake magic rock instead of a real one? Had he not known that it wouldn't work or something?

"I think I see what's going on here," Katherine announced grimly. The assembled Pokemon and humans looked up at her eagerly. "This Gengar, he's a long-time pal of yours, isn't he?" she asked the Ninetales. The Ninetales nodded once, curtly.

"So you trust him, right?" Katherine continued. Another nod. "And he's the one who taught you to use all of your magic and stuff, when you evolved, and he helped you set up the curse that's on the island?" The Ninetales responded in the affirmative, and Katherine nodded herself with satisfaction.

She then began on a speech that seemed at first unrelated. "You really don't like humans. I guess I understand that. You think that they are tyrants, that they mistreat Pokemon. Well, look around you." Katherine spread her arms wide, indicating the meadow, some small patches of flame still showing in the distance. The Ninetales obliged, glancing coolly around once, then returning her gaze to Katherine face blank.

"Don't you see?!" Katherine yelled, growing exasperated. "You're the tyrant now! You talk about humans as slavers? Hah! You're the slaver here. You trap innocent Pokemon and trainers and force them to do your bidding. Why, you'd make a fair human yourself!"

The Ninetales did not take this revelation well. She bared her teeth and snarled, eyes blazing at the insult. Katherine merely glared down at her and continued her tirade. "So you didn't have a great life. So maybe some humans messed it up for you," _Or they died in the storm, more like, _Katherine thought to herself, "but that doesn't give you some sort of excuse to declare yourself "Mistress" of the entire island and take it over. And what's worse, you start attacking innocent trainers simply because they're human. All of this destruction and hate...it's all because of you."

If Katherine had expected the Ninetales to burst into tears and begin weeping something along the lines of, "My god! What have I done? I'm so terribly sorry! I wish I could take it all back!" then she was sorely disappointed. The Ninetales only growled more viciously. Then she whirled away from Katherine to look back out over field, eyes fixing on something lingering near the forest's edge. "Taaales! Ninetales Ninetaaales!"

"She's calling for that Grottlis person," Jeremy informed Katherine. "Says to get over here and not try anything funny.

The Gengar materialized next to the Ninetales, bulging up out of her shadow to stand beside her. "Yes, Sasoliar?" he asked.

"Tales. Ninetalestales ninetales!" the Ninetales hissed to him. Katherine watched with satisfaction as the Gengar shot a quick glance at her, fury in his red eyes, then proceeded to try to soothe the Ninetales' temper.

"Just what you asked me to do with them, of course, Sasoliar," he replied. "The ruined Pokeballs are an unfortunate side effect. Don't trouble yourself with them."

"Ah, and the ever-helpful friend appears," Katherine observed caustically. "So, Grottlis, if that's your name, I'm not fooled by your smooth words. If this Ninetales sinned, it was the sin of ignorance, of naiveté. You, on the other hand, were ever the one there to point her in the right direction. The one to drop a hint about how to control someone's mind or lay a curse upon them. And of course, you were only too glad to relieve her of the burden of dealing with all of those Pokemon that the trainers brought in with them. The question that one might ask is, what's in this one for you?"

"What's in it for me?" the Gengar scoffed. "Does one really need a reason to help a friend in need? Is it so evil to ease the suffering of a poor lost soul?"

Katherine paid him no heed. "Yes, you had a tidy little arrangement running, didn't you? You had yourself a blissfully ignorant servant, only too willing to keep the island under control so that news of your exploits wouldn't leak out. Meanwhile, you had a reliable source of Pokeballs and a tidy way to do away with their owners. Most tidy indeed. What did you do with their Pokemon?"

The Ninetales looked shocked. "Tales? Ninetales, tales ninetales tales?" she asked the Gengar pleadingly.

"She wants to know if it's true or not," Jeremy muttered to Katherine.

The Gengar's shifty eyes darted around. Katherine loomed over him on one side, six Pokeballs gleaming at her waist. He was surrounded on all other sides by a wall of living Pokemon, all glaring at him accusingly. There was only one way for him to escape now. Stalling, he began to draw on the dark energy constantly flowing through the world. He was annoyed when, as always, the mysterious meadow seemed to put a damper on his efforts. Still, he worked quickly, talking all the while. "Looks like you have me, little human," he spat, pretending to be helpless in the face of her accusations. To his right, Sasoliar's face collapsed into a look of horror and sorrow. "The game is up. And I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed. It was so easy, you know, to fool you all," he felt the necessary energy within his grasp. "What a pity that you'll never be able to do anything to me about it."

He suddenly lunged sideways, directly at Sasoliar. The startled Ninetales wasn't able to react quickly enough as the Gengar grabbed her neck firmly with his short hands, their grip seeming to reach beyond flesh to the sould beneath. He sank away into nothing, pulling the Ninetales along with him. She struggled, but to no avail. Katherine lunged forward at the Gengar, but he had already dissolved into nothing. The Ninetales gave one last wail before she, too, disappeared, carried off to who knew where.

Her last plea rang out across the meadow, lingering on the uneasy air. To Katherine, it was merely a last wail of despair before the Ninetales was dragged away into the abyss. To the Pokemon in the field and those others who could understand them, it was far more. Their Mistress' last words were etched into their brains with a burning intensity.

_Forgive me..._


	21. The Sunset

**Epilogue: The Sunset**

Satoran worked diligently to douse the small fire, his digging claws scooping earth over the flames to smother them. In the background, he could hear that the fighting had stopped. It seemed that this new trainer was speaking to the assembly of Pokemon for some reason, but he tuned her voice out. Satoran had more pressing matters to deal with. If the fires that had sprung up around the meadow could not be contained, they would grow and possibly consume the entire forest.

When he was satisfied that the fire here was indeed out, he darted away, scuttling through the undergrowth in search of another to deal with. As he went, he thought he heard something crashing around in the brush just outside the meadow's limits, in the disturbingly dead ring that now surrounded it. The Nincada stopped, curious. His sensitive whiskers twitched, tasting the air.

He didn't have to wait to process the information that they gave him as the culprit appeared, a yellow shape struggled out from behind a half-dead bush, his white ruff tangled in its grasping branches. Satoran sighed inwardly. It was Delrairon.

The Hypno succeeded in extricating himself from the bush and continued forward, grumbling to himself as he went. The ancient Pokemon nearly tripped over Satoran as he entered the meadow, blinking his squinted eyes in surprise. "Why, is that you, little one?" he asked in surprise.

"Indeed, old one," Satoran replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, I've come to see the action of course," Delrairon wheezed. "I've waited a long time for this day."

"Why?" Satoran asked, cocking his small head, all thoughts of his former duty fleeing his mind.

"Because today is the day that the forest will know freedom once more," Delrairon announced, nodding his head as if in approval of his own pronouncement.

"Not that you did much to speed it along," Satoran muttered to himself. The Hypno's ears were keener than they appeared, and Delrairon caught the comment.

"How do you mean? Without me, how would you ever have known what to do?" he asked incredulously.

"Old one, you spoke only in riddles. I didn't understand," Satoran explained, trying to smooth over the insult.

"That so?" Delrairon grunted. "Shows how inexperienced you are, I suppose. You know, you'd make a fine seer. You have the head for it. Of course, you'd never learn, being stuck here on this little island all of your life. "

Satoran disregarded Delrairon's ramblings and decided to try once more to pry an answer out of the Hypno. "Last time we talked, you said that these fiery flowers were important or something," he reminded Delrairon, gesturing around at the few untouched plants around them. "But now they're all burnt up. Isn't that sort of, um, bad?"

The Hypno stroked his chin and peered around. Then he turned back the way that he had come, and then back again to Satoran and shook his head. "Not at all. Now back that way," he indicated the area behind him with a wave of his hand, "is bad. I don't see anything wrong here at all."

"Okay, so it's bad that the flowers out there died, but not in here, where they got burnt up. You said that we should protect the meadow, prevent it from being destroyed. And now here it is in ruin."

"Don't you remember anything?" the Hypno barked in exasperation. "Remember what those flowers are?"

"Flames, I know, I know," Satoran sighed, remembering the response that he had given the last time the Hypno had asked him a question similar to that.

"Exactly! And only in burning can the flames hope to grow," Dekrairon continued sagely. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be. And so too should you. Think on what I said. It's not much of a life, living cooped up in this little forest."

The Hypno continued on through the meadow, swatting aside plants and trampling unheeding through piles of still-warm ash. Satoran watched him go, whiskers twitching thoughtfully. The Hypno had once again proved to be little help, but Delrairon's explanation still somehow made sense to him. What intrigued him far more were the old Pokemon's final words. What would it be like to finally be free of the smothering confinement of the small island? He shook his head to drive the frivolous thought from his head, turning back to his work. He couldn't drive away the nagging voice that continued to hum in the back of his head, speaking of adventure and fulfillment, however. As he darted over to the next fire, he felt an odd rippling feeling come over him.

----

With the departure of the Ninetales came the dissipation of the curse from the island and its inhabitants. It seemed that a great wave spread out from the spot where she had disappeared, rippling out across the forest. A pall was lifted from the trees, the shadow that had clouded the forest dissipated. An odd tingling feeling was felt by those within the island's borders as an odd wind passed over them. For some, it was a mere fleeting sensation. For others, however, it sank into their very being, drawing forth that which was long forgotten.

Katherine was still in shock as she felt the odd wave break over her head. She was one of the first that felt it, standing as close as she was to its source. She shook her head as though chasing away an annoying fly, and the feeling was gone. She turned to look around to see if anyone else had been affected and found her vision and was startled by a boy who had apparently sprouted up next to her. She stared in surprise and wonder at him, and he returned the look with a cheeky grin that she knew all too well.

"Look familiar?" he asked slyly. He couldn't have been much more than Katherine's age, with blonde hair cropped close to his head and laughing blue eyes. He was also quite short, coming up only to about Katherine's shoulder. He wore clothing that was positively antiquated, from the league jacket that had been in fashion a decade ago to the wide, silver trainer's belt.

"Jeremy?" Katherine asked in disbelief.

"The one and only," he confirmed. "Why, what did you think I looked like?"

"I don't know, sort of purple and furry," Katherine replied. "But shouldn't you be a lot older? You were here for a decade, and unless you started training when you were seven or something, you haven't grown at all."

"No, indeed," Jeremy agreed. "That was one of the best parts of the deal, as far as the Mistress saw it. Ninetales live for upwards of a thousand years, as you know. We crused trainers would remain alive and unchanged, at least in our true forms, for all of that time. When she died or released us, we would return to the state that she remembered us in, no older than when we had been cursed. We would then be free to go forth into a world that we no longer knew, where our friends and family had long died and where entire countries might have come and gone. A parting gift, if you will."

"That's horrible," Katherine gasped.

Jeremy shrugged. "For people searching for the fountain of youth, I guess it's not that bad. And at least I got all of my stuff back." He reached into a pocket in his league jacket and pulled out a Pokedex. Katherine was fascinated by it; it was massive and clumsy-looking, one of the earlier computerized models. Jeremy's hand went reflexively to his waist, but found the clips on his belt to be empty. The hand clenched, and he slid the Pokedex back into his jacket with a grim look on his face. "But not anything that really matters," he observed darkly.

Their conversation was interrupted by a tall, skinny boy whom Katherine had also never seen before. He was incredibly gangly, with oversized hands and feet and a huge pair of spectacles perched on his long, thin nose. His skin was extremely pale, so much so that it seemed almost bluish from the blood running beneath it. "You got changed back too, Jeremy?" he asked.

"Trevor?" Jeremy asked with an incredulous grin. "A bit less serpentine than before, I see."

"And a bit more blind," he replied, removing his glasses and holding them before his face. "These things aren't the right prescription. She got them wrong." Katherine could make now make out other trainers moving about in the field, some just standing around dazedly and others running around joyfully. One by one, they wandered over to congregate around Katherine, whom they considered to be their savior, introducing themselves enthusiastically.

In all, Katherine met fourteen trainers, from the plump and amiable Jess to the surly Seth, whose curly brown hair was, as Jeremy jokingly put it, "like a Spearow's nest."

Friendly greetings were exchanged and introductions made, as most of the trainers had never seen each other in human form. Finally, Katherine asked the question that she had been waiting to ask, not wanting to put a damper on their enthusiasm. "So what do we do now?"

The trainers were puzzled by this; though they had dreamed long of the day when they would be returned to themselves, they didn't really know what they should do with their newfound freedom.

"We should probably get off of this island first," pointed out one, and it was unanimously agreed that this was a sound idea.

"The question is, how?" Trevor murmured pensively. His eyes were oddly squinted as he tried to bring the now blurry world into the sharp focus that he had become used to. If there was one upside to being turned into an Ekans, it was keen vision.

"You can take Pidgeot," Katherine offered. "He'll only be able to carry one of you at a time, of course, but he can take you anywhere in Johto that you want to go. Except for the Indigo Plateau."

No one seemed to have a problem with this, so Katherine released Pidgeot and presented the situation to him. At first the great bird was unnerved to find himself released on the island, but soon relaxed as he realized that the malevolent presence that he had sensed earlier had passed on. One by one, he carried the formerly cursed trainers away, flying tirelessly back and forth across the vast ocean. Jeremy was the last to leave, and by then the day had waned, the sun sinking lower. "Where are you going?" Katherine asked him as he mounted Pidgeot.

"To see my family, of course," he replied. "They all think that I'm dead. And then..." he trailed off, deep in thought. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I'm going to find out what happened to my Pokemon if it's the last thing that I do. That Gengar can't hide forever. I'll find him some day."

"Good luck," Katherine told him as Pidgeot prepared for takeoff, extending his wings. He pushed off, surging away from the ground. Jeremy gave Katherine a final wink and a wave as he spiraled up and out of sight.

Soon after he had left, Katherine heard a rustling behind her. Turning, she saw a Pokemon the likes of which she had never seen before. It was a small gray insect, with green faceted eyes and a pair of large brown digging claws. Curious, she grabbed her silver Pokedex off of her belt and flipped it open, telling it to analyze the specimen.

The device gave a cheery bleep to indicate that it had found its target and then fell silent, analyzing. It then gave two angry bleeps and explained, in a flat monotone, that "Target is not covered under current license agreement. National expansion required for full information. Target is a male of the Nincada species, level five." It then bleeped twice again and continued in an entirely different voice, "Want information on all of the known Pokemon in the world? Then ask for the National Dex expansion the next time you visit a Pokemon Center! For only--"Katherine flipped her Pokedex shut again, cutting off its sales pitch.

"You want me for something?" she asked the small insect, wishing that Jeremy was still around to translate its answer for her. The bug nodded and waved one of its claws at her, as though pointing to something. "What? What is it?" she asked. It continued the claw-waving, and Katherine eventually determined that it was indicating the Pokeballs strapped around Katherine's waist. "You want me to take you with me?" she asked in surprise. The bug nodded again.

Katherine reached into a pocket for a basic Pokeball. If the Pokemon was willing to be captured, there was no point in wasting an Ultra Ball on it. She pulled one out and enlarged it, looking down at the Nincada. "You sure about this?" she asked. As she held the ball, ready to capture the Pokemon, she was having doubts. She was planning to train her higher-level Pokemon to finish out the league so that she would be able to compete in the final tournament next year. She didn't know that she'd have time to train a little level five bug too much. An idea struck her. "Do you think that you'd mind if I gave you to my little cousin?" she asked the bug. "She's about ready to begin her Pokemon journey. You could be her starter."

The Ninada thought it over, then nodded slowly. "All right, then. This won't hurt..." Katherine dropped the Pokeball and it struck the Nincada between the stubby wings that sprouted from his back. He was drawn into it by a beam of red light and the ball clicked shut, settling without a single wobble. Katherine bent down to pick it up with a smile. Sasha would be delighted.

When Pidgeot finally winged back into view, Katherine had electronically swapped her Electabuzz for the new Nincada. She would deliver him right away, as soon as she'd had a good night's rest. She climbed aboard her Pokemon. He heaved himself airborne wearily, obviously glad that this was the last trip for the day. Katherine leaned down to speak in his ear, "After this, I promise we won't go exploring any suspicious islands, okay?"

Pidgeot shrieked with laughter and Katherine joined him, both of them knowing that it wasn't true.

----

After his encounter with the young Nincada, Delrairon attended to his errand without further deviations. He searched carefully throughout the devastated meadow, pushing aside those flowers that were still standing and carefully searching charred patches. At last he found it, lying forgotten near a clump of partially charred flowers.

The irregular red stone was half-buried in a pile of ash, its polished surface shining in a stray sunbeam. The Hypno bent down to retrieve it. He, too, felt the odd ripple that spread across the island and smiled knowingly down at the cold object in his hand. He left the meadow with it, noting with approval that the boundary between the meadow and outer forest seemed to have dissolved, the magical tingle that normally passed over one who crossed between them eliminated.

Indeed, even the trees themselves seemed more hopeful, no longer seeming to consume the sunlight before it reached the forest floor but rather exalting in its presence, tossing their leafy heads in the gentle breezes that rippled across the low area. Delrairon slowly made his way back to his home, an ancient tree whose trunk had been ravaged by ants, creating a convenient hollow near to the ground. More than a little cramped, to be sure, but it provided protection from the elements and a secluded place in which to think.

The old Hypno squeezed into its woody embrace and settled down for his midmorning nap, still holding the red stone in his yellow hands. Hypno are primarily nocturnal, as it is during this period that most Pokemon and humans sleep, providing them with their primary source of sustenance, dreams.

When Delrairon awoke, the shadows were growing longer, creeping across the newly liberated forest. He decided that this would be an excellent time to study the stone, as it would still be some hours before his mealtime. He brought the rock close to his perpetually squinted eyes, studying with interest.

From its composition and design he identified it as a Ninetales prayer stone, one of the sacred objects used in ceremonies appealing to their lord and protector, the sun, or, as they called him, Novarisol. It looked as though Ailrianor had sent Katherine on a dangerous mission with nothing more than a wish and a prayer. The Hypno scrutinized the subtle carvings that ringed the large sun impressed in the stone's center, reading the prayer that had been dedicated on this particular stone.

Help us to see with eyes unclouded the truth of our fears, for it is only from our own fears that evil arises.

_Smarter than he looks, that Ailrianor is,_ Delrairon admitted. He smiled as he imagined the ancient Ninetales pacing around his distant mountain, formulating his clever plan, which hinged on this appropriate verse. Delrairon had visited the wise Ninetales often, for dreams span distances beyond the physical ones.

The Hypno settled back, contemplating the lesson of the stone. It took someone as wise as Ailrianor to see beyond the obvious and assess the situation from all angles. After all, what would have happened if Katherine had successfully banished the Gengar with some powerful magical artifact? Surely, all would have been lost.

Delrairon weighed the stone in one hand, pensively staring out into the waning light. He finally determined to keep it, tucking it away into one of the irregular crannies formed by the living tree that was his home. One never knew when such an item might prove useful.

----

Grottlis was furious as he exploded out onto the dead plane once more. The pervasive cold did nothing to chill his anger, which raged unchecked throughout his immaterial form. Yet another one of his well-laid plans had come to ruin, and all on account of the meddling of that confounded Ninetales, Ailrianor. 

At least the arrangement had proved profitable, while it had lasted. Still, it disappointed him to see such a promising program fall to pieces before he could truly reap the benefits.

A small struggling in his hands reminded him that he had other manners to deal with. Grottlis was somewhat heartened at the reminder. The Ninetales could still be of use to him, even if she had grown a bit too knowledgeable to be allowed to continue to think for herself. It would be easy enough to remedy that, however.

Grottlis stopped his purposeful movement through the dead plane, allowing the swirling currents within to carry him along to wherever they would. Here, a soul was not so tightly bound to its body. Sasoliar's was already trying to escape her body, which was failing in the empty darkness of the dead plane. Grottlis had only to wait until it had departed and he could be assured that she would provide no further resistance. Hanging suspended, he allowed his mind to wander with his soul, drifting away from the present.

He was brought back to himself when a sudden burst of heat and light erupted from the soul within his grasp. It was as though a miniature star had appeared in the dead plane, burning away even the stubborn darkness that existed in its tormented depths. The radiant soul burned away the comfortable mystery that shrouded it, exposing its tangled, writhing being, which cowered in the light's righteous fury.

For his part, Grottlis reflexively released the glowing soul with a soundless shriek, his hands burned and eyes blinded by its sudden power. The soul fell downward, passing through the boundary between living and dead and disappearing from sight, light suddenly extinguished. When he had regained self-control and his vision was beginning to return, Grottlis contemplated following to retrieve it. Inspecting his injured hands, however, he changed his mind. Let it go. What would be the point in chasing after it?

In a fouler mood than ever, the Gengar ceased his aimless drifting and slogged determinedly towards his intended destination. The going was difficult, as the forces governing the dark plane had been thrown into turmoil following the unexpected burst of righteous light, throwing off the currents of energy constantly circulating through it.

At last he found his destination and returned to the mortal world, to the familiar tower that was his home. This time, however, there was one waiting for him. Standing back against the far wall was a listless Dragonite, large eyes unfocused, powerful body seeming barely able to support its own weight.

Grottlis was irrationally annoyed by this, although he shouldn't have been surprised. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he snapped at the hulking creature. "Get out of here and gather the others." The Dragonite seemed slow to comprehend the order. Finally, it nodded, face still blank. It then slowly turned to do the Gengar's bidding, thick tail dragging a streak in the dust.

----

It was quite a storm. The sky growled and bellowed, casting down streaks of lightning to reveal its devastation. The old woman smiled to herself, remembering what it might have been like to have weathered a tempest such as this in the old days. Surely, it would have been quite an adventure. Now she was content to sit inside and watch from the cozy safety of her home. Still, she couldn't pretend that the storm still didn't call to her, her trainer's sense telling her that something was _happening _out in the rain-lashed world, something that she didn't want to miss.

She was too old to go chasing adventure, however. She'd had her time. Her gnarled hands tightened around the mug of hot tea that she held, the ligquid reaching the temperature where it would be best to drink. The mug bore the league symbol, unmistakable on a deep purple background. She took a sip, eyes still glued to the scene outside.

Striker entered the kitchen, claws clicking on linoleum. His afternoon nap had apparently been interrupted by the unexpected noise. The Jolteon yawned expansively, wandering over to the old woman and brushing against one of her legs affectionately as he passed. She reached down absentmindedly to scratch his spiky back, feeling the sharp tingle of electric current running along it. She could remember a time when this simple act would have incurred a shock that would knock her out. Striker was past his time, as was she, and now could barely cook a dead fish with his electricity, much less an eighty-six-year-old woman.

"We're just a couple of old bats watching the young ones have all of the fun, now, aren't we, Striker?" she asked with a chuckle. He flicked his long ears in agreement, settling down near her feet to enjoy the spectacle with her.

The storm seemed to be building to a fever pitch when the old woman thought that she heard something outside. Striker's ears perked up as well; his hearing was still keen. He rose to his feet and cocked his head intently, listening. He didn't seem to hear anything more, but he strode out of the kitchen anyway, in the direction that the sound had come from. He reached the front door and barked gruffly, wanting to go out and investigate.

The old woman, intrigued, rose slowly to let him out. She shuffled over to open the door, peering out into the gloom, waiting for a lightning streak to illuminate the scene. Striker bounded out, dashing across the yard. She heard him barking excitedly and stepped out onto the threshold, heedless of the lashing raindrops that poured down from the dark sky.

Finally the lightning came, sketching the area in sharp relief. The old woman gasped as she saw Striker standing over limp form that had somehow collapsed in the yard. The illumination did not last long, but the old woman saw the foxlike body and flowing tails that trailed out behind the limp Pokemon.

"Oh, my..." she gasped, not believing her failing eyes.

----

I decided to put Author's Notes at the end today, as they're sort of long and I thought you might prefer to read the last chapter first instead.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of tidy endings at all. In real life, there are few, if any, tidy endings. Therefore, this story doesn't really end so much as Katherine's role in it ends. As our protagonist departs from it, so too shall I.

Some of you are no doubt still uncertain about a few things, such as the meaning of the meadow, why Ailrianor decided to give Katherine a decidedly unhelpful rock, and so on. If that's the case, then I'd advise you to take another look...I have provided the clues necessary to put together the answers to all mysteries presented here. If you're really stuck and can't figure it out but still want answers, feel free to review and ask. I'll get an answer to you if I can.

So, what did you think of my first fanfic? Is there something that you think that I could do better for next time or that you think that I should try to keep going for my next work? Speaking of which, I have already got another story prepared. I'll be taking a week off to get it ready before starting in on it. It will be an OT 'fic featuring a region and Pokemon of my own creation. It will be entitled "Clouded Sky," and I hope to see you all again when it goes up.

Finally, thanks to all of you who took the time and review my fanfic. I love to get reviews; they're what makes me feel motivated to write more (hint, hint.)


End file.
